You have EXACTLY 7 Options For Your Back or Neck Pain…

1. Medication - Whether you take medication orally, by an injection or topically, (application directly to the skin) it all works the same way. Medication may temporarily ease pain and inflammation in the tissues surrounding the discs, but because discs don’t get an independent blood supply, medications will do nothing to heal the cause of your pain: the discs themselves and/or the forces which caused the injury in the first place.
   KNOW THIS: Medications for back pain (pain medications, anti-inflammatory medications, muscle relaxers, and even “over the counter medications”) should be used ONLY on a temporary basis due to the extremely significant and well documented hazardous side effects to the liver, kidneys, intestines, etc. Please consult your medical doctor about ALL possible side effects BEFORE you consider taking medications for your pain. Your health is too important NOT to heavily weigh ALL of your options.
2. Massage - Massage is effective with muscle pain and dysfunction, and massage may ease your pain temporarily, however massage simply can do nothing to change the cause of the problem… the discs.
3. Acupuncture - Acupuncture has had some success helping several different types of pain, but offers no solution to the cause of your disc pain.
4. Physical Therapy - Physical therapy helps many different conditions very well. Physical therapy uses exercises, which are simply the contraction of muscles. Contracting muscles around a bulging or herniated disc can actually make the bulge or herniation worse by creating more pressure on the disc and pushing the weakened and injured disc material further out toward the nerves making the problem worse. Physical therapy alone is NOT recommended for disc injuries.
5. Chiropractic - Chiropractic is incredibly successful with a multitude of conditions, especially back pain. In fact, studies show chiropractic to be the most effective treatment for conditions of back pain… other than disc problems. Similar to physical therapy, manipulation to a bulging or herniated disc can make it worse! Possibly even rupturing the disc! Chiropractic is NOT recommended for disc injuries. However, once the disc is healed, it is highly recommended to see a chiropractor to ensure proper mobility within all discs to maintain proper disc and joint health.
6. Surgery - The two most common types of surgery for disc injury are a a) Discectomy and b) Spinal Fusion.
   1. Discectomy - What the surgeon will do is take a knife (scalpel) and cut away the part of the disc that is actually bulging or herniating out toward the nerves. In some cases this offers temporary relief as the physical pressure is now off the nerves. The problem with this is the part that is cut out is the outer rings- the strength of the discs! Nothing was done about the forces that caused the disc to wear excessively in the first place and now the disc bulges and/or herniates again, faster and easier because some or all of those annular rings are gone! Pain returns because the problems were NOT addressed properly.
   2. Spinal Fusion - This is done a number of ways. Sometimes plates are placed on the front or sides of the bones and large screws are drilled into the bone. Sometimes even larger screws are drilled into the bones (one on each side of each bone) and fastened to a plate from the back. Sometimes pieces of bone are taken from the hip and place in the area to try to get the bones to “grow together.” Finally, some combination of those are used. When this is done, NOTHING was done to help HEAL the REAL problem- the disc. Also, those forces that caused the injury to the disc now are transferred above AND below the fusion, causing excessive wear and tear on those discs. It’s not uncommon to hear “Looks as if the discs above and below have finally wore out as well. Looks like we will have to fuse those as well”…
   It is clear to see why studies show that well over 50% (some say as much as 80%) of spinal surgeries are failures- leaving you with the SAME pain or WORSE pain afterwards! Surgery for disc injuries should ONLY be considered as a LAST RESORT, when ALL else has FAILED or when you have loss of bowel and/or bladder control. Surgery has NOT been shown successful for back disc injuries.
7. Spinal Decompression - Clinical studies show non-surgical, drugless, non-invasive spinal decompression to be very successful, even after failed surgeries! The BEST part about spinal decompression is that there are NO documented side effects! This is ONLY the treatment which actually HEALS the disc and targets the TRUE cause of YOUR DISC PAIN!