Treatments for sciatic discomfort in the back as a result of herniated discs, or at least information about the many remedies to relieve symptoms are readily available online, thank goodness

No one wants to have to suffer through a herniated disc but there are plenty of options out there. What can you learn about herniated disc treatment, how to prepare and how to have a successful result?

What are the symptoms?

The first thing you need to know is that there are actually different types of therapy for a herniated disc, depending on different factors and your specific condition. Some of these factors include the symptoms which you are experiencing, your age and your past medical history, your activity level and the presence of worsening symptoms.

Levels of care

Usually when you go for herniated disc treatments, the doctor will start slow with a milder program and then become more persistent if your discomfort continues and does not get better. As your condition becomes more aggressive, so will your remedy plan need to be more aggressive.

From the moment you are first diagnosed the doctor will begin evaluating your options. The first step is usually to restrict certain activities which make the condition worse. Many people find that just stopping the things that aggravate it can help the affected disc heal on its own. If this is still not working for you, or it seems that your condition is getting worse, you can move on to another stage of treatment. Often ice and  heat applications will be the next stage in the process. This helps relax the muscles and can also  ease your spasm or muscle ache.

Now if you are still going in order of relief possibilities, the next thing you will consider is  physical therapy . This is known to be very helpful. In addition, certain types of prescription medications may be offered at this time. Anti-inflammatory medications are often used to reduce swelling and the pressure that comes with joint swelling. In addition, your doctor may prescribe certain medications, oral steroids or epidural steroid injections. Sometimes as a last resort, surgery may be the only option to remove pressure around the nerves which causes severe physical distress.

As a last resort, when these other methods do not work, your doctor may suggest that you try surgery. It is only used in certain cases as some people are not good candidates for surgery. However, some people find that when nothing else has worked, they can find  relief after surgery. Only your doctor can tell you if this is the best choice for you.

Of course there are other options provided by natural alternative methods that you may wish to explore, some of which are listed at:  Natural Cures

Author: James Kronefield

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=James_Kronefield

Check out these other posts on pinched nerves below

Ask me anything

A friend suggested to me that it might be a pinched nerve. I have tried Advil and IcyHot to no avail. The only person I know who is skilled enough in massage therapy to be able to do something about this is 3000 miles away. 

What cures a pinched nerve

For a pinched nerve, rest the affected area. 

Do you have to get surgery if you have a pinched nerve

If it is severe enough, yes, surgery is an option 

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With age, comes experience, wisdom, and a long list of health complications. It’s true that a healthy way of life promotes longevity but as nature takes its toll on our bodies, we become more susceptible to illnesses. As our bones weaken and the probability of accidents increase, back problems such as spinal stenosis turn into a reality for many.

Affecting primarily the lumbar and cervical areas of the spine, spinal stenosis occurs when the spinal canal (which is composed of nerves and the spinal cord itself), begins to compress. The narrowing per se does not cause extreme pain, it’s the pressed nerve endings that causes discomfort. For those who suffer from lumbar spinal stenosis, they tend to experience pain and/or numbness in their back and legs. With cervical spinal stenosis cases, the symptoms are generally more severe. This pain can occur in their arms, legs and even cause imbalance.

Spinal stenosis is a medical condition that attacks people who have weak bone structure that is why this illness is common to older patients. As we age, the bones begin to lose its calcium component and the cushion that protects the area. As a result, it becomes more challenging to walk long distances as your agility is impaired. While some are born with it, women who are over 50 tend to be primary targets. If you are suffering from painful spinal stenosis, it is recommended that you look at all of your options. Surgery is considered as a last resort especially with older patients. Nonetheless, there are many beneficial treatments which are non-invasive in nature that could reduce some of the pain.

Spinal decompression therapy, for example, is one treatment that is pain-free. It requires the patient to lay on a table hooked up to a harness and receive pressure to their spine. This pressure actually creates a vacuum effect, tugging the discs apart, allowing them to gain flexibility and stretch out. By decompressing this area, vital nutrients and blood supply re-enter, which allows the spine to heal. The result allows greater mobility and the likelihood of pain and muscle spasms are minimized. Though people with herniated discs often experience a full recovery, those with spinal stenosis may only feel less pain, given that their bones are already degenerating. Nevertheless, this makes a lot of difference. Most patients have to receive 4-5 sessions per week for a minimum of twenty sessions.

In addition to spinal decompression therapy, those with spinal stenosis can also benefit from exercise. Your flexibility determines the treatment available to you — many would advise Pilates, Yoga or a physical therapy-centered treatment. Exercises that focus on your back pain are important in the healing process. If you are still experiencing pain and discomfort, you may ask your doctor and seek advice on medications. Cortisone shots give temporary relief in muscle spasms. Regardless of what you choose, there are many methods to tackle spinal stenosis. If we could reduce just some of the pain in our lives, living into our 100 s would certainly be a walk in the park.

Technorati Tags: back, decompression, disc, discs, endings, exercise, herniated, lumbar, numbness, pain, pilates, pressed nerve, problems, severe, spinal, stenosis, therapy, yoga

Spinal decompression is an advanced form of spinal traction used in the treatment of disc-related back pain and related conditions such as sciatica. The primary difference between true spinal decompression and traction (and inversion) machines is that spinal decompression machines are set up to "trick" the spinal muscles into staying relaxed during treatment, allowing for greater changes in disc pressure than with regular traction, which has to fight the resistance of the muscles. Spinal decompression treatment provides excellent results for many people, but some fail to get any improvement at all, and others may even feel worse. I will attempt to explain the most common reasons for these treatment failures, and give suggestions for how to know when spinal decompression is and is not likely to help you.

Spinal decompression in my San Antonio office has been quite successful for most patients, but it is not appropriate or effective for every patient. It has been my observation that some providers of spinal decompression services will recommend it as a "cure-all" for all patients in an attempt to keep their machines full and maximize their return on investment on the equipment. Even the best doctors don’t have a 100% success rate, because no treatment works for everyone. The problem is when doctors accept patients who are not really good candidates for treatment, the results are lacking, and some poorly-selected patients may even temporarily get worse when they receive this form of treatment.

From my experiences in my San Antonio practice, the patients who get the best results with spinal decompression are those with one or more bulging/herniated discs and patients with mild to moderate disc degeneration. Patients who have previously undergone disc surgery are somewhat more complicated, but most still get good results when they meet the selection criteria (no metal implantation in the spine, no spinal instability, and no impaired healing at the site of surgery). The vast majority of people who meet these criteria get very good results and are usually able to return to their normal activities without any significant pain.

While there are case reports that indicate complete disc ruptures can be treated with spinal decompression, in my experience, people with actual ruptures tend to not do very well with this form of treatment. It should be noted that even doctors sometimes incorrectly call a disc bulge or herniation a rupture. True disc ruptures (also called extrusions and sequestered discs), in which the inner gel of the disc is actually leaking out, are relatively rare, so it is good to find out for sure what your actual condition is.

In addition to the importance of applying spinal decompression only in the appropriate cases, it is extremely important for the doctor or technician operating the machine to set the patient up properly for the treatment. Several factors are involved, and every spinal decompression system has its own unique set-up procedure. Ongoing training of any personnel who operate this type of equipment is essential. It is very easy to get sloppy with setting up patients on the equipment, and this leads to ineffective treatment. Overall, because of the design of the better spinal decompression systems, even very poor patient set-ups rarely lead to patient injury, but mistakes in the use of the machine can definitely prevent the patient from getting the desired results and might cause a temporary flare-up in symptoms. To help avoid this problem, I recommend asking any potential spinal decompression provider you may be considering seeking treatment with about his or her training for the operators of the equipment. A one-time training done when the equipment was first received is simply not sufficient. I strongly recommend working with providers who perform re-training on the equipment on at least a quarterly basis.

One other consideration is the fact that some patients are not good candidates for spinal decompression treatment because of their inability or unwillingness to follow the recommended treatment protocol. In my experience, the primary reasons why a patient can’t or won’t follow the treatment recommendations are usually related to money and/or time.

A complete spinal decompression program of care that inclues decompression as well as additional treatments may seem expensive to some people. Since spinal decompression is an alternative to disc surgery though, a cost comparison with surgery will show spinal decompression to be much less expensive with statistically much better resuts, making it a good value in most cases. Even so, some people try to lower the cost by attempting to reduce the amount of treatment they get. In my experiences from my San Antonio office, this approach is often a very big mistake. The people who discontinue care prematurely will often feel better and return to activities before their disc condition is stable. This can lead to re-injury and even worse problems. In my opinion, it is far better to invest in the recommended treatment in order to get maximum benefits.

Of course, some people fail to follow treatment recommendations primarily because they have busy lives and are unwilling to spend the time on getting better. This type of patient tends to miss a lot of appointments and may go long periods of time between treatment sessions. Unfortunately, the success of spinal decompression usually depends on getting the recommended amount of treatment at the recommended frequency of treatments. The effectiveness and results are not as good when people don’t make time for their appointments. What some busy people fail to realize is that if they don’t set aside time to properly deal with their health problem, sooner or later that health problem will deteriorate to the point where it forces them to make time to get treatment, and this often occurs when they are at their busiest and treatment is least convenient. It is my recommendation to invest the necessary time in getting better, rather than do the treatment intermittently and not get the best results.

To summarize, spinal decompression can be an extremely effective treatment for people suffering with pain from bulging and degenerated discs, but it is important that doctors select patients for this treatment carefully and make sure that the technicians operating the equipment get refresher training regularly to be sure patients are being set up on the machine properly. Patients need to take the responsibility to follow the treatment recommendations to allow for maximum correction and healing.

Dr. George Best has been providing spinal decompression in San Antonio, Texas since 2006 with the DRX9000 system. For additional infomation, visit his website at www.spinesanantonio.com.

Technorati Tags: bulging, disc, discs, herniated, spinal decompresion, spinal decompression therapy, spinal traction, treatment

Many times, when you have back pain, it can be one of the herniated disc symptoms that you need to be aware of. In a hurry? Find a list of suggested treatments by clicking here.

First, we need to look at how the disc functions. The spine has all of these discs that separate the bones and have a cushioning effect.

Think of them as shock absorbers with a hard layer on the outside, which is called the annulus.

The inside of a disc is a jelly like substance, which is named the nucleus. The disc job is to not only cushion the bones in the back but also protect the nerves, which run behind the disc.

When a disc herniates, it is usually due to the outer area getting damaged and the jelly shifting to that spot. Then that area balloons out applying pressure on the nerves and that is when pain starts occurring. This causes most of the symptoms you get from the disc that has herniated.

This can happen anywhere up and down the spine. Different parts of the body can be affected depending on where the disc herniates. Let’s look at some of the areas of the body and show the symptoms that may occur in those areas.

The herniated disc symptoms for the cervical area could include:

• Neck pain, neck stiffness or numbness, headaches
• Shoulder or arm and hand pain that can be a sharp, stabbing, or a burning type of pain. This may include a tingling pins and needles type feeling too.
• Dizziness, blurring of vision and possible ringing in the ears
• Possible chest pains also

Since this involves nerves, as you can see, the pain can travel along that nerve to other parts of the area where the disc herniated. Let us examine this further.

The area where the disc herniation most commonly happens is the mid back area around the thoracic disc. These symptoms can include pain in the mid back along with arm, shoulder, and hand pain. This is similar as to what happens in the neck but the pain may differ to some degree. Also, pain can occur around the rib cage and chest and might even cause you breathing problems. This can create some neck pain too and even digestive problems due to the fact of the location of the gall bladder and the nerves involved.

We now will examine the lumbar area, which is the lower back area. This area can manifest symptoms such as pain low in the back with the pain moving down the legs. It can cause weakness in the legs along with pain in the knees. It can also cause problems with the organs located in that region such as the bladder or bowel.

One big mistake that people do when trying to relieve this pain is to use heat. Heat can and does make this problem worse not better. It can increase the swelling in the area of the disc and cause even more pressure on the nerves. Ice is recommended to reduce swelling and it lessens the pain.

Most of the time conventional treatments given for herniated disc symptoms only result in temporary relief.

Find some recommended natural effective alternative treatments. Click here.

The doctors usually give painkillers for the pain in various forms, surgery for severe cases, and physical therapy. The surgery may be the more permanent but only if it fixes the herniated disc.

Author: Aida M.S.   Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Aida_M.S.

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