Back Pain Medication & Spine Injection

Back Pain Medication & Spinal Injections (Steroids & Nerve Blocks)

breaking away from back pain medication & spinal injections

The use of back pain medication and spine injection is on the rise for slipped disc, neck, and back pain patients. Far too many are turning to harmful substances in hopes of curing their aches and pain without knowing that pain medication and steroidal injections are not a cure. If you suffer from back pain, slipped discs, nerve impingements, or neck problems, far better alternatives can fix and repair the root causes of your pain without harmful side effects.

Steroid injections, spinal injections, nerve blocks, and back pain medication are more harmful to your neck, back, joints, and spinal discs. Back pain medication and back pain injections, including steroid injections, facet joint injections, epidural injections, or other forms of spinal injections, have failed to give patients the lasting relief they wanted from pain. Instead, get holistic targeted slipped disc treatment as an alternative to injections and medication; contact a center near you today.

Medications and injections for the spine are chemicals that help subside inflammation, relax muscles, and decrease the nerve's ability to appreciate and transmit painful singles. They are painkillers that help reduce the severity of symptoms you feel and should never be approached as a cure.

This article provides information on back pain medication and spinal injections such as steroids, nerve blocks, rhizotomy, etc. We aim to help you understand the facts about the potential harms of steroids, options, painkillers, and anti-inflammatories. But first, let's familiarize you with the 5 best alternatives to back pain medication and spinal steroid injections.

The 5 Best Alternatives To Back Pain Medication & Spinal Injections

  1. Evidence-based Chiropractic: A good chiropractor does better than back pain medication, painkillers, or steroids. Moreover, chiropractic is one of the safest healthcare principles for spine and joint injuries or pain patients.
  2. Clinical Physiotherapy: Physiotherapy is a time-honored profession that focuses on treating spine and joint conditions through devices and manual methods.
  3. Proper Nutrition: Good eating habits and avoiding eating foods that induce inflammation (surgery) go a long way in making you feel better. Nutritional supplements such as celery extract and turmeric supplements have strong natural anti-inflammatory powers that help you get over the pain.
  4. Good Posture: Back and neck pain sufferers who take regular neck or back pain medication can significantly benefit by watching their posture, avoiding slouching, and prolonged sitting.
  5. Exercise & Rest: Regular exercise stimulates the body's natural pain-fighting chemical and improves muscle tone and overall well-being. The best exercise is walking. Start slow, go at a comfortable pace, and wear proper athletic shoes. In addition to exercise, make sure to get plenty of sleep. Start with getting a good night's sleep. Healing and replenishment of fluids in your joints and spinal discs occur during the recumbency of sleep.

Suppose you can incorporate all of the 5 alternatives mentioned above. In that case, you should be able to drastically reduce or completely go off your neck and back pain medication and the infamous spinal steroidal injection.

The 7 Most Commonly Back Pain Medications

You should never take any medication without having a thorough medical check-up with your medical doctor. Drugs have side effects, and back pain medication has killed millions! Before taking any medication, you will need to have your medical doctor will carefully assess you. We have provided a short list of the common back pain medication prescribed by most physicians below:

  1. Celecoxib (Celebrex): A non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug commonly prescribed to patients with slipped discs, joints, and musculoskeletal injuries.
  2. Etoricoxib (Arcoxia): Arcoxia is similar to COX-2 inhibitor (Celebrex) to help reduce pain and swelling (inflammation).
  3. Ultracet (Tramadol with Acetaminophen): Ultracet is a combination of tramadol and acetaminophen prescribed for acute or severe pain patients.
  4. Duloxetine (Cymbalta): A painkiller that may relieve nerve pain, fibromyalgia, and peripheral neuropathyTramadol (Ultram): A narcotic-like painkiller (opioid) for those in pain. Very addictive.
  5. Pregabalin (Lyrica): An addictive medication used in treatments of nerve pain, epilepsy, restless leg syndrome, and fibromyalgia.
  6. Amitriptyline (Elavil & Vanatrip): An antidepressant is often given to reduce pain and insomnia.
  7. Gabapentine ( Neurontin): An addictive anticonvulsant medication primarily used for nerve pain, including shingles and seizures

Back Pain Medication & Slip-Disc: Can Drugs Cure Slip-Discs?

The role of slip-disc medication is a topic of value. Can Medication Cure Slip-Disc? This is perhaps the most common question asked by patients suffering from a slipped disc. We all live in a world heavily influenced by pharmaceutical advertisements pedaling their latest pain-killing drugs. Their programming of our thoughts and mind are never at rest. And as such, most of us believe that medication and drugs can offer a cure or a fix for all types of diseases.

To date, there isn't a back pain medication, spinal injection, vitamins, or minerals that you can take in hopes of fixing the root cause of your pain, let alone getting cured by them!

Neck and back issues caused by slipped discs or facet joint pain syndromes are mechanical disorders needing mechanical remedies. Frankly speaking, drugs are dumb! They cannot target a particular tissue. Hence, their failure when it comes to correcting and repairing. When it comes to a slipped disc, a drug can only subdue some symptoms for a short period. Their use is limited and often associated with compilations.

Avoid Spinal Injection: Epidural Injections, Steroidal Injection, Facet Block Injections & Nerve Block Injections

Nowadays, surgeons and surgical centers offer various injectable medications directly delivered to the spine. Spinal injections can be more harmful and even fatal.

If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are encouraged to have an injection delivered to your spinal canal: ask questions before signing or agreeing. Spinal injections can provide relief, but the comfort you get is temporary and may result in additional health issues due to the harmful side effects. A recently published post in the Journal of Radiology reported terrible side effects associated with steroid injections. The authors of this published study encouraged doctors and patients to find alternatives rather than steroids due to their destructive nature.

To familiarize you with some, we have provided on this page a list of the most common spinal injections below:

  • Epidural steroid injection
  • Selective nerve root block (SNRB)
  • Facet joint block
  • Facet rhizotomy
  • Sacroiliac joint block

Spinal injections have some of the worst complications of any drugs given to a slip disc patient. Some can tolerate these side effects, while others will need emergency services for recovery. The injectable drug is no different. They, too, come with some nasty side effects.

Complications of Slip-Disc & Back Pain Medication Or Spinal Injections

Every drug has a side effect. A simple way to avoid the harmful side effects of drugs is by taking them only when needed. Avoid medicating for mild or moderate pain and avoid pre-emptive dosing of medication. As Hippocrates once said: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

Complications of Slip-Disc Medication

infographic on natural alternative to back pain medication

Every drug has a side effect. A simple way to avoid the harmful side effects of drugs is by taking them only when needed. Avoid medicating for mild or moderate pain and avoid preemptive dosing of medication. As Hippocrates once said: "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."

The Deadly Side-Effects of Spinal Injections

A slip-disc will not kill you. It may feel like killing you, but none has died from a slipped disc. The same can't be said about medication given to slip-disc patients. Far too many have been killed taking slip-disc medication. The worse of the killer drugs are injectable. Back pain medication and spinal injections offered for those with slip-disc can have a devastating impact on health and even longevity. We have listed some of the associated side effects of spinal inactions below: 

  • Spinal Infections of varying degrees, including Osteomyelitis
  • Localized increase in pain
  • Dural Puncture (occurs when the sheet covering the spinal sac is punctured)
  • Headaches and Migraines of varying severity (can occur from Dural Puncture)
  • Nerve Damage (from direct needle trauma)
  • Paralysis
  • Stroke
  • Death

Epidural Steroid Injection: A Procedure That Can Be More Damaging Than The Slip-Disc

spinal injections that delvers back pain medication

An epidural steroid injection (ESI) is an invasive procedure often prescribed for slipped-disc patients. Advocates of the epidural claim that the steroid contains slip-disc medication to help relieve slip-disc pain in the neck, back, arms, or legs.

Opponents of epidural steroid injections relate that the procedure is too risky and the beneficial impacts are minimal and always short-lived at best. We agreed with the opponents of all invasive procedures, and the epidural steroid injection for slip-disc is an absolute waste, especially given the potential for developing life-threatening complications. You are better off living the pain instead of risking your health or life for minimal gains.

The Selective Nerve Root Block (SNRB) test shows if spinal nerve root impingement is the source of pain. SNRB is yet another useless test designed by pharmaceutical to make money. The Selective Nerve Root Block test is for two primary purposes:

  1. Identify a pinched nerve in slip-disc patients
  2. Decrease pain (slip-disc medication)

Once ready, they will take you into an operating room or a surgical unit where a surgical team (surgeon, radiologist, anesthesiologist, and a few surgical nurses) is waiting for your arrival.

They will insert a needle into your spine under fluoroscopy (a specialized x-ray device). They will inject steroids close to your spinal nerve; each segment can take up to 30-45 minutes. If your pain goes away, they have identified an irritated nerve, and after a nerve is identified, they often proceed to the next segment to rule out multiple segmental involvements.

What is the BEST Alternative to SNRB Injections?

back pain medication and spinal injection (epidural injection) during slip disc surgery in Malaysia

and death. No, thank you very much! There is a far easier way to test the impact of a pinched nerve! The reason why they don't do it is monetary. There is money in simple tests; we have included six non-invasive tests below for review:

  1. Milgrams test
  2. Kemps test
  3. Valsalva's maneuver
  4. SLR
  5. Cervical compression tests
  6. Cervical distraction tests
  7. Combining the tests above with MRI studies is the safest and least harmful way of assessing a slipped disc and its impact on the nerve root.

The Facet Joint Block: Avoid this useless slip-disc procedure at all costs

Facet Joint Injection or block is a standard hospital procedure for those diagnosed with facet-mediated pain, slipped discs, and facet hypertrophy or arthritis. It is an ideal method to manage pain for intense back and neck patients. However, it has little to no value clinically. Moreover, the side effects are too numerous and potentially more harmful to you than the neck or back pain. In short, it is a pain management treatment that can end up being worse than the disease or pain it is meant to treat. Possible side effects include the death of cartilage, degeneration of ligaments and muscles near the site of injections, osteoporosis, and an increased rate of degenerative arthritis.

A facet joint block injection, better referred to as a facet block or a facet injection, is often performed for the lumbar but can be done for the neck and upper back of unsuspecting slip-disc patients. This useless procedure is for those diagnosed with facet joint or back pain. Here is the process:

  • The hospital's surgical team will bring you into a procedure room (often a semi-surgical room)
  • Most surgical centers and hospitals will place you on an IV line (Drip)
  • They will numb the area of injection. Once ready, they will insert the long needle into your spine under x-ray guidance (fluoroscopy), where they will inject a dye into the area to assert the surgeon of the proper site
  • Once confirmed, they inject the steroid into your joint
  • They will continue to do the same for the opposite side and may need to repeat this at multiple segments

Can Facet Blocks & Steroid Injections Cure Your Pain?

Steroid injections or facet blocks for the spine and spinal joints will not cure the pain. Their primary objective is to reduce the swelling. However, the harmful impact outweighs any potential benefit it may have. Our strong advice is to avoid any steroid injections. Instead, opt for a conservative approach that fixes and repairs your damaged tissues.  In short,  facet blocks only desensitize (dumbs) your nerves. But, the worse are the two types of complications:

  1. Major complications
  2. Minor issues

Significant complications of a Facet Joint Block given to a slip-disc patient include the following:

  • Major infections
  • Nerve Damage
  • Spinal Cord Damage
  • Worsening of pain leading to excruciatingly severe symptoms
  • Paralysis
  • Infections (Infectious complications including but not limited to endocarditis, epidural abscess, septic arthritis, and meningitis following a facet joint injection)
  • Death

Facet Joint Block issues or minor complications as seen in most slip-disc patients are:

  • Allergic reactions (to contrast, anesthetic, or steroids)
  • Bleeding
  • Minor infections
  • Significant increase in the rate of  degenerative changes
  • Joint, cartilage, and bone degeneration and death
  • Osteoporosis
  • More pain

A Facet Rhizotomy and Sacroiliac joint block: Good for the Surgeon-Bad the Slip-Disc Patient

A Facet Rhizotomy is good for the surgeon but bad for the patient. Its sole purpose is to kill the pinched nerve, so it no longer works. Once dead, it will not send painful singles. However, killing nerves is not therapeutic and will have consequences you may not be prepared to deal with for the rest of your life!

The proponents of these procedures claim it offers lasting pain relief, while opponents call it Pandora's box: benefiting surgeons and hospitals. We will briefly go over both points of view. But first, let's see how this is administered.

A facet rhizotomy injection is carried out similarly to an epidural:

  • A needle with a probe gets inserted into the joint space of your spine.
  • Heat is then applied to the probes through radio waves to kill the sensory nerve within the painful joint.
  • Killing this sensory nerve prevents future communication between your brain and the impacted joint.

Once the sensory nerve is destroyed, your brain will not know what is happening with the joint. In other words, your brain will no longer receive information on the status or well-being of the joint. It would be similar to cutting the dashboard wires that illuminate your vehicle's warning light: no more check light engine, brakes light, or door open lights.

To Medicate or Not to Medicate a Slip-Disc? The Choice is Yours!

man running without the need for back pain medication

If you suffer from intractable back or neck pain, back pain medication and spinal injections may offer some relief. The relief you get may come at a cost. On the other hand, a conservative approach to neck and back pain can help you avoid spinal injection, back pain medication, and surgery. Best of all, there are no side effects, and you get to keep all your nerves without the need to kill or destroy them.

To conclude, back pain medication, steroid injections, facet injections, and other forms of spinal injections cannot cure or fix the root causes of your neck or back pain. In most instances, you may do much better not taking any action.

Your goal should be to fix and repair damaged tissue. In most instances, we can help. Our centers have the latest therapy devices, including spinal decompression therapy, high-intensity laser therapy, NSD Therapy®, and other therapeutic devices that repair damaged joints, nerves, ligaments, and spinal discs without steroid injections, drugs, or surgery. However, we encourage a conservative course of action that does not include taking painkillers, back pain medication, or steroidal spinal injections.