Disk herniation disappears within 3 months

[admin]

Doctors at the Department of Orthopedic Surgery, Gifu Municipal Hospital, Gifu, Japan reported a case of a 33 year old man who's herniated disk went away completely after 3 months.

This guy was doing weight training and experienced back pain. An MRI scan showed he had a large disk herniation at L4/5. The pain disappeared over the following month and he restarted his weight training. A follow up MRI 3 months later showed complete disappearance of the extruded disk material.

Earlier reports have reported that a minimum 30-week period was needed for herniation to disappear.

This was published in the November 2009 issue of Orthopedics.

Sounds very encouraging to me.

[Sian]

The lucky guy! I wish mine had disappeared. I've had 2 prolapsed discs for 5 years and have made zero improvement.

[BP4MS]

Hi Sian

What have you tried so far to fix your discs.

I've been doing some PT, but the main thing that the doctors seem to say is just to wait and allow your body to fix itself. The other choice is surgery and I'd rather avoid that, so I've been looking around for other things to try.

[Sian]

Hi, sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I've been having a rather traumatic time of late and the past few months haven't seemed real. My situation is more complicated than just the 2 prolapsed discs, I also have M.E. and Fibromyalgia and each condition sets off the others. I have come to terms with the fact that this is just how my life is now and I make the best of it. Any treatments I have are really to help me cope with all the varying symptoms. Things that help the disc pain in particular are massage, using a tens machine, pilates and applying an amazing freeze gel when the pain gets overwhelming. The gel is called Masterplast freeze gel, I get it in a tub and it is by far the most effective one, I've tried all different sorts. I get it online and its really reasonable price, cheaper than the others on the market. Because its a gel and you have to wash you hands after applying I have a pack of baby wipes handy for the times I can't get up.

I would avoid surgery too, I've heard some horror stories of recovery and it often makes people worse.

[Augustine5I]

As a physical therapist for over 12 years, I have never seen a herniated disc just disappear. It is more than likely that his original test was a "false positive". Man made objects are not perfect and mistakes are inevitable. Anyway, that makes the most logical sense to me.

I mean, what made this guys HNP go away? What treatment did he have if any? Medications?

Would love to see more studies like these with similar results before jumping to any conclusions.

I don't mean to be skeptical, but my clinical experience tells me this just does not seem possible.


Tommy Hoffman
http://www.bulgingdiscfixed.com

[Sian]

It is my understanding that they don't just disappear so I too am skeptical. Good luck to the guy, it's great for him but it would be great if we could get to see both of his MRI scans. Also could it be possible the actual scans were mixed up with someone else's by human error???

[Martin@stopsbackpainnow.c]

I agree with you Tommy. In 10 years as a physical therapist, I have never seen a herniated disc just disappear. I have seen herniated discs become less acute and painful, but never totally disappearing. Do you know what the millimeter of herniation was or whether or not this guy had any type of spondylolisthesis? I would think if a herniated disc could just disappear, we would be seeing more of that happen.

[Leeann]

I have heard of them "absorbing" or "retreating?" but I know it's not frequent. My neurosurgeon told me of this when I asked him if it was possible that mine would. He said "no" because mine was too large. But at least he said it was possible.

[admin]

I've also heard that your body may reabsorb them - and when I heard this, the implication of the person telling me was that it was reasonably common for this to happen

[Paula]

This can absolutely happen! My brother in law's herniated discs reduced almost completely after being on an alkaline forming diet and removing the thing that caused him the most stress at the time - his job.

He is now self employed and although has less money, is a lot happier and healthier!

I too have reduced my own back pain from an average of 7 out of 10 (10 being agony) to less than 1 by using the same diet.

And the arthritic bump in my mouse-finger also reduced as a result! People don't think diet and your own psychology can make a difference, but they really can.

It is also proven that pet owners recover from these and many other illnesses a lot quicker than non-pet owners. Many believe it is because the love you have for your pet fills you with endorphins when you stroke and make a fuss of them, and becuase you are generally more relaxed, so are better able to deal with otherwise stressful situations.

The reason this type of recovery is so rare is because most people simply don't believe it is possible for back and other conditions to disappear, so they don't attempt to do anything to help it along.