Disc Bulge Tips

i have a disc bulge at t8-t9 which is only indenting the spinal cord (not compressing) i believe the injury probably occurred 1 year ago during some squats (this has been diagnosed via mri in feb 2013). up till november 2012 i was almost totally asymptomatic, since november i have bad pain upon waking and stiffness, pain throughout the day for rotation and sidewards bending (not forward bending). it seems to calm down a little and then if i have to do anything active it immediately flares up and im in terrible pain! any tips? ive had to do something active today (job related, unfortunately i cant do much about this) now its killing me, feels like im winded. im icing 20 mins on, 20 off to try and knock the inflammation out. i’m on 1800mg ibuprofen per day, fish oil, vit d, vit c and some glucosamine. im getting some msm and microlactin as well to try and reverse the inflammation, anything else i should be doing? i have an inversion table as well?

eventually im hoping to go back to lifting but at the minute i havent been, i know these injuries take a long time to sort themselves out but being a thoracic injury surgery is pretty much a know go due to how much more involved thoracic surgery is.

You’ll need to see someone who specializes in Applied Kinesiology or Neurokinetic Therapy. I don’t know where you’re located but Dr. Bob Rakowski in Houston has solved numerous cases of bulging discs using these techniques along with nutrition. And stay off the ibuprofen - it’ll only make things worse!

unfortunately im in the uk so thats a no go! why will ibuprofen make it worse?

Schoenfeld, Brad. The Use of Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs for Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage. Sports Medicine. 2012. 42(12), 1017-1028.

google it and read

[quote]jon123 wrote:
unfortunately im in the uk so thats a no go! why will ibuprofen make it worse?[/quote]

ibuprofen does reduce the amount of inflammation and pain, but it will slow the healing process (inflammation is there for a reason)

so to take it once or even for a few days is good when you need pain relief, but it is no long term/permanent solution and can easily mask serious problems

very interesting, i’ll stop the ibuprofen then, ice is doing a good job at controlling the inflammation/pain at the second. as far as i can tell things such as fish oil and msm although are anti inflammatory dont interfere with the bodies ability to heal.

[quote]jon123 wrote:
very interesting, i’ll stop the ibuprofen then, ice is doing a good job at controlling the inflammation/pain at the second. as far as i can tell things such as fish oil and msm although are anti inflammatory dont interfere with the bodies ability to heal.[/quote]

ibuprofen is a member of a family of compounds called NSAIDs (Non Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) (together with i.e. Aspirin and many others)

Ibuprofen inhibits an enzyme which makes prostaglandines, a class of hormones.

So basically whenever you take ibuprofen, you have less protaglandin in your blood than the body would like to have.

prostaglandin has many physiological effects, for example to mediate inflammation and sensitizing neurons to pain

I don’t think it is accurate to say ibuprofen makes things worse, not in conditions like this, where the body’s inflammation reaction is really not doing all that much good. The body doesn’t always know best, as many of us who have had back pain become pathologically chronic can tell you.

To the best of our knowledge, disc injuries don’t really “heal”, but they stop hurting after a while in most people, but in many people the pain pathways go haywire and the pain becomes chronic. Chronic pain is a pathology in its own right that destroys many lives. So in the meantime, you want to do whatever you can to prevent the pain from becoming chronic, and that includes using anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen (although I personally think naproxen is a better one).

there is to be fair a lot of studies that suggest that nsaids do not hinder ligament healing (they do appear to hinder bone and muscle)

most state that some nsaids can actually aid ligament healing!

not that this appears to be helping me much…

something interesting for the pain and mobility side of things

http://www.thepyra.com/Documento1.pdf