Weather and Back Pain
Winter is just around the corner, and the cold weather is definitely here. My patients all complain that they have more pain with the cooler temperatures. While everyone believes cold weather, and stormy weather contributes to worsening arthritis pain, the scientific data can be conflicting at times. In relationship to work activities, some population studies have […]
Epidural Steroid Injections And Compression Fractures
Epidural Steroid Injections have been used to treat patients with both herniated disks as well as for patients with spinal stenosis. In addition, the same steroid compounds have been used by physicians to treat arthritic conditions of the spine, via the so called facet joint injection. Most prudent practitioners have always cautioned the patients that […]
Can Discography Cause Problems?
All invasive procedures have associated risks. Traditionally, Discography has been used to identify pain generators in the spine. Some clinicians have opined it was good test, with acceptable low risks primarily due to needle placement and infections. Research regarding longer term effects of discography has suggested it may also be a cause of disk degeneration, and […]
Are Infections the reason for Disk Degeneration?
Dr. Ganko et al Published an intriguing article called “Can Baterial Infection by Low Virulent Organisms Be a Plausible Cause for Symptomatic Disk Degeneration?: A Systematic Review” in the May 15, 2015 issue of Spine. To summarize the paper, prior studies on the prevalence of infections in disk material were pooled together to do a […]
Role of Vitamin D and a Healthy Spine
Association between low levels of Vitamin D and spinal surgery outcomes The role of Vitamin D in maintaining a healthy spine has been underestimated and overlooked by many. In the last few years, the relationship between Vitamin D levels and various components of spine health have been reported on with increasing frequency within the literature. […]
