Herniated disc pain management is a priority concern for patients who must endure severe disc symptoms which can truly ruin the quality of their lives. Pain management has become an independent medical specialty, elevating this symptomatic care approach to one of the most popular among patients and doctors alike. However, nothing changes the basic fact that treating symptoms is generally considered poor medicine, compared to curative therapy.
This article will examine when pain management is appropriate for back and neck pain patients. It will also provide advice on mitigating the many risks involved with some forms of symptom management.
Herniated Disc Pain Management Drugs
The most common form of symptomatic pain management is accomplished using drugs. Powerful prescription medications can relieve all but the worst back pain symptoms. However, this type of herniated disc relief often comes at a tremendous cost. Drug treatment is an extremely risky therapy method which can produce a host of known and unknown side effects in treated patients. Drugs are generally bad for you and pose significant dangers to your health.
Pain medications, in particular, demonstrate both detrimental physical effects, as well as the very real hazard of chemical dependency. Gaining pain relief at the cost of your job, family, future or very life is certainly a very high price to pay.
Epidural injections eliminate the chances of addiction associated with oral pain medications, but still might create side effects or enact only short-term relief.
Managing Herniated Disc Pain
Complementary medicine encompasses many individual treatment modalities. Some of these methods are extremely effective at reducing pain and can make life far better without the burden and risk of pharmaceutical methods. Some of the best of these alternative pain relief modalities include: acupuncture, heat and ice, TENS, massage therapy and exercise.
Even the best alternative and complementary therapy options are still symptomatic treatments. This means that they might make the condition more livable, but they will do nothing at all to resolve the cause of the pain.
In essence, the underlying condition continues to exist, creating the need for a constant and never ending cycle of pain relief therapy.
Herniated Disc Pain Management Solutions
While finite symptomatic treatment is great while you figure out the best way to cure your disc pain, it is not a good long-term solution. Patients who give up on a cure and simply pursue symptomatic relief are doomed to live in pain forever, as well as shoulder the considerable costs and risks involved in ongoing treatment.
I always advise seeking an end to your pain, starting with the simplest and most effective modalities. When it comes to herniated disc treatment, I recommend knowledge therapy as the best option for mindbody pain syndromes and spinal decompression as being worthwhile for many structural disc pathologies which require anatomical alteration in order to become asymptomatic.
While surgery is considered a traditional means of resolving disc pain, it often worsens the condition and can cause irreparable damage to the healthy tissues of the back and spine. I almost always recommend patients to avoid herniated disc surgery when possible.
Remember, life is too short to spend every day in pain. While relief might seem acceptable, finding a true cure is always ideal.
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