Herniated Disc Treatment
When you have pain from a herniated disc, the first herniated disc treatment you should try is ice. Yes, you read correctly - ice. It will not only make the swelling go down but it will decrease your pain. If the pain continues after applying ice for a few days then you may have to search out other treatments. Your doctor will have more than one suggestion. Let’s look at some of these and see what they entail.
The doctor will first prescribe probably some pain killing medication to help you deal with the pain you are going through. These usually are non-narcotic at first to see if they will work. In severe cases, the doctors may prescribe stronger narcotic painkillers. Take the prescription exactly as prescribed, do not take more. These can be addictive so be careful. He could also give you a pain shot in the clinic for faster relief. He may also give you an anti-inflammatory medicine that is non-steroidal in nature. This will help reduce the inflammation around the disc and reduce the pain. By reducing the inflammation this will allow this disc to begin the healing process.
Physical therapy is another herniated disc treatment that may also be recommended to help build your muscles in your back and make them stronger. Stronger back muscles help the strain come off the affected disc and may help the disc heal. It is always important for good spine health to have good muscle tone in your back muscles. Physical therapy can show you all sorts of stretching techniques you may not think of on your own too. Not all exercises have to be strenuous, stretching exercises are quite effective.
The doctor will probably tell you to stop doing any physically taxing activity that may make this condition to worsen. Resting the area often times does make it successfully heal. You should, of course, during this time, keep stretching and moving though. To just lay still may lock everything up with stiffening of the muscles.