How Effective Are Pain Injections As A Treatment For A Bulging Disc?

One of the most typical treatments for a bulging disc recommended is the use of cortisone injections. The most common method that these are given to a patient is in the form of an injection. But anyone who has done any research about this treatment knows that it can be somewhat controversial.

So, are injections a good option when it comes to the treatment of a protruded disc? And what is the difference between a steroid injection and an epidural?

The fact of the matter is that every treatment has a time and a place when trying to help with this condition, and whether you choose to have in injection of any type really depends on your goal. But before you make your decision, it’s important to review all the facts about your treatment options.

First, it’s important that you have a grasp of what is actually going on when you suffer with a bulging disc so you realize why a doctor would recommend this course of action to start with.

When a disc protrudes, it will tend to apply pressure on one of the nerves of the spine. This is actually what can make this condition very painful, because the nerves are very sensitive to pressure of any type.

This is also why the pain associated with a bulging disc tends to be a radiating type of pain. For example, if you have a bulging disc in your neck, typically the pain will not just stay in your neck. It will also tend to radiate into the shoulders and arms, possibly even lead to a headache and other problems as well.

When you have pressure on a nerve, the body will initiate a process called inflammation to try and heal the damaged area. What happens is that the body will send a lot of blood to the affected area, the purpose of which is to bring fresh oxygen and nutrients to the area for healing purposes.

And although this sounds good on the surface, if you have a lot of blood in the area, it will swell up and cause more pressure to be applied to the nerves. So, this process can result in more pain for the individual suffering with a bulging disc.

The reason a doctor would recommend a steroid injection for this condition is because all steroids have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. So they will slow the rush of blood to the area, decrease the swelling that surrounds the nerve, and this is how they provide relief.

However, there are some significant side effects to steroid injections, the main one being that steroids can eat away at the surrounding joints and result in further problems with that area of the spine in the future. This is why you aren’t able to have more than 3 injections of steroids per year.

This is also the reason that many doctors will recommend an epidural instead of a steroid injection. An epidural is just an anesthetic, which means that it numbs the inflamed nerve and calms it down so your pain is decreased.

Epidurals don’t have that negative side effect that steroid injections have, so they are typically much safer.

However, in both cases you have to realize that your relief will typically be temporary. Both steroid and epidural injections will hide the pain, but they do not actually heal the problem (which is the bulging disc).

This can be very deceiving for an individual, because we tend to associate pain with the problem, and most people would think that because the pain is relieved, the problem must be gone. Well, this isn’t actually the case with a bulging disc, and many will actually go about their business because they think they’re healed, and then the problem just becomes worse over time.

As a bulging disc therapy, the success rate of these types of injections is about 50%, and the relief you experience will generally last up to 3 months. Some people don’t experience any relief, while others experience relief that lasts longer than 3 months.

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

Similar Topics

• Cortisone Injections ! ( Help Needed Questions ) | eHealth Junction
• Karmen Michael » There’s No Place Like Home
• Building Muscle Density Through Steroids | Best Gain Muscle Protein Powder
• Christov Thinks Cortisone Injections Hurt Like The Dickens « Christov_Tenn
• Bipolar Treatments for Living a Productive Life « Panic Attacks Anxiety Mood Disorders