How Successful Are Medications As A Bulging Disc Treatment?

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January 30, 2010

If you’ve already seen a doctor for treatment for a bulging disc, then you probably know that the first thing most doctors will recommend are different medications. But is this the best option for your condition? How effective are these medications anyway, and are there any side effects that you need to know about?

These are the questions this article will answer for you. First of all, let’s talk about the types of medications that are normally recommended.

Usually, a physician will recommend an anti-inflammatory medication, a muscle relaxer, a pain-reliever, or a combination of the three.

In order to understand what these different medications do, you first have to have a basic knowledge of what is happening when you have a bulging disc, and how the pain is being caused.

The spinal discs are cushions that separate each set of bones within the back. They are actually a special type of ligament, and in addition to their function of cushioning the bones, they also help to hold the bones together and help to maintain a proper alignment of the back.

Each disc is composed of a firm outer covering called the annulus, and a soft jelly center called the nucleus. The annulus itself is composed of many layers of cartilage, which makes it strong.

When an individual develops a bulging disc, what is really happening is that one or more of the layers of cartilage that make up the annulus become injured and torn. This leads to a weakness in the wall of the disc, and the jelly will start to shift from the center into the area of weakness.

This leads to a “bulge” in the wall of the disc, which is where the condition gets its most common name – a bulging disc.

What’s unique about this condition, though, is that the nerves of the spine are located directly behind each disc. And in fact, because of how close the nerves are to the disc, it’s very common for the bulge in the wall of the disc to apply pressure to these nerves.

This leads to a chain reaction called “inflammation.” What this means is that the body knows that something is not right because there’s pressure on the nerves. So, blood will be sent to the damaged area, because blood contains fresh oxygen and nutrients for healing.

Although this may sound good, in this case it just causes more pain. There isn’t much room for these nerves to start with, so if you send a whole lot of blood to the affected region, it will swell up, become very hot, and add more pressure to the nerves. This just leads to even more pain.

So, to make a long story short, this is the reason that these medications are recommended. An anti-inflammatory will slow the rush of blood to the area and reduce the swelling that is applying more pressure to the nerve.

A muscle relaxer is sometimes used because the nerve pressure will lead to muscle spasms in the region of the back that’s affected. This just helps the muscles to relax.

The pain-reliever will numb the nerves and reduce your pain level.

Although all of this sounds good on the surface, the fact of the matter is that medications are actually only effective about 30% of the time. They may lead to temporary pain relief, but they usually don’t help for the long-term.

In fact, some of these medications can lead to other complications if taken for too long a period of time. Problems such as liver and kidney damage are very typical with these medications.

The reason these aren’t helpful in most cases is because they are all designed to focus on the affected nerve – they do absolutely nothing for the cause of the pain which is the bulging disc itself. You can numb the nerve, reduce the inflammation, and make the muscles relax all you want, but if you don’t address the cause of the issue, the pain will return.

The video above is 1 in a series of 20 that I’ve created to address the most frequently asked questions that individuals have about bulging disc therapies. If you’d like to see all 20 videos in this series, you can click the following link (treatment for a herniated disc).

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