Can Medications, Pain Relievers Or Pain Management Procedures Be The Absolute Worst Thing For Serious Herniated Discs or Serious Neck & Back Pain? Part I

Easily 75% of the patients who enter my office looking for relief have been on an extensive array of drugs… both prescribed and over-the-counter… And many have had multiple pain management procedures including epidiruals, nerve injections, electro or thermal “melting” of the disc (known as IDET) and the like.  Some have had 15 spinal injections or more … without significant long term relief.

However, in my opinion, the waste of time and your own or your insurance companies money is not the worst of the issues here.

The most serious issue at hand is clearly:

DELAY OF APPROPRIATE CARE AND FURTHER DAMAGE TO THE DISCS AND SURROUNDING TISSUES.

What do I mean by this?  Simply put, by masking the pain caused by the underlying damage, the patient is deceived feeling his “problem” has been solved.  But all that really happened was that the pain was artificially masked.  The patient continues to engage in activity that is damaging the delicate, pain sensitive tissue even more… but doesn’t know it because the pain killing medication either swallowed or ingested is acting as a cover-up.

Brief example:  70 something year old Craig came to see me with pain that had been progressing rapidly for 3 to 6 months but had started years before.  He had been actively engaged in tennis, mountain climbing, golfing and biking…but could only due so after downing some type of pain killer.  While he killed the pain, he was quietly destroying his discs. Then one day years later, the pain killers stopped working.

And he showed up at my door step in serious pain… and more serious disrepair.  MRI studies revealed massive degenerative decay at every level from the lower thoracic to lower lumber areas with multiple herniations and areas of instability.  He was as serious of a case as I’ve seen and I categorized him at a level 5 requiring the most serious and intensive care program I have available.

While Craig is slowly repairing and feeling somewhat better, he’ll never do better than 50 to 60% improvement.  Why?  Because he was kidding himself that drugs were making the “problem” better.  Truth is: it was the worst thing he could have done and has caused himself permanent and irreparable harm.  The tissues can never truly heal at this point.

Do yourself a favor.  Don’t kid yourself that drugs heal you. They don’t.  And there are other options.

I’ll explore more on epidurals in my next posting and how they should be used more judiciously and in combination with non-invasive rehab procedures.

Want to find out if you’re a candidate. Give us a call at  Waterfront Spine Institute for a no charge consultation  201-840-1980 or go to www.waterfrontspinerehab.com for more info and instant free detailed report.

Thank you so much for visiting my site. I encourage you to leave your questions and comments below. And for more information on Non-Surgical Spinal Decompression please fill out the form to the right or give us a call at 201-840-1980

About Dr. Podell, DC: Dr. Dave Podell, DC has been in active practice for over 25 years and has seen countless numbers of the most difficult and previously failed cases. As the clinic director of the Watefront Spine Institute in Edgewater, New Jersey, just minutes from the George Washington Bridge, Lincoln Tunnel and Midtown Manhattan, Dr. Podell, DC runs one of the Northeast’s most advanced and evolutionary multi-disciplinary clinics for the treatment of disc herniation and associated ailments. Dr. Podell, DC sits on the advisory board of Spinal Aid Centers Of America and trains other health care providers in the science and art of non surgical spinal decompression in his Edgewater facility. He continues to train and advance his clinic’s state of the art spinal rehabilitation programs and is known nationwide in his field. He is additionally certified in neurodiagnostic evaluations, Spinal Manipulation Under Anasthesia and Disability Impairment rating.  In addition to NSSD, he had received advanced training in Spinal Chiropractic Biophysics, Active Therapeutic Techniques, MedX and Spine Force Spinal Rehabilitation, Extremity manipulation, orthopedics and neurology.