Bulging discs and stem cell research

There is some beginning human testing about to start now, but that is for spinal cord injury not for discs.

I would suggest that you get another opinion from another spine specialist.

Just because the size of your disc bulge is not large, doesn't mean it won't cause you spine problems and pain.

Both disc size and pain are very subjective.

There are many people that are walking around with disc bulges and have no symptoms, don't even know that they have them.

On the other hand, how a disc bulge affects a person is very individual. What affects one person one way, can and is very different in another person.

A good doctor will not make the comments yours has, but will rather look at the MRI pics as just another piece of the puzzle in determining the cause of your pain.
A good doctor will try to match the pics of an MRI with the patients symptoms.

You need another doctor to examine you and your MRI and find a course of treatment that will help you.

Good luck

Fran

Are not the answer for everything, if you want my answer forget it for bulging discs, my advised to you is go swiming and jacussi helps too, chiroprators help too, and accupunture, and go back to work the more you sit at home the weaker you get. Men was made for work, and working hard. I did have your situation, but I work every day in pain, for years of chiropractors sections, and I never stop working. My boss wanted to send me home many times, But I never stop working, when I had a cardiac problems 4 years ago I got a pacemaker took three weeks off and I came back to work. Get out of the house and comback to work.

hiya, i have myself just been told after 8years of constant doctors visits for chronic pain in my lower back, leg pain, not being able to walk, burning sensation of the skin on my backside and down the backs of my legs and into the sole of my foot, tingling in same areas, even to not being able to sit as the pain knocks me sick! i was told a million times nothing was wrong and had to basically diagnose myself with sciatica, as anyone with this condition knows it is not a problem on its own, sciatica has a cause, this cause for me also being a bulging disk at the bottom of my spine that compresses my sciatic nerve, now if you want long term sustained damage that gets worse, that much worse that you become incontinent in both ways if you get me, eventually leading to spinal surgery then take greenboys advice, which by the way i found ridiculous!! you NEVER agrravate an injury purposely, this is how people end up in hospital causing the NHS in our country (england) so much money when it could have been sorted alot earlier rather than gettin up going to work and making yourself a whole lot worse, these injurys need taking care of! my question alien is hve you tried physiotherapy to strengthen your core?? this is what my back specialist has told me i need to do, strengthen the muscles that surround this disk to help keep it in place! i was doing what green boy said you see, going to work every day, liftin heavy things etc etc and my doc said this has made things so much worse and im lucky really that it hasnt got to the stage where i am incontinent as it was heading that way because of where i had the pain (down below)!! it used to keep me off my feet for days i literally could not stand up, i would cry with the pain (this was when i was 17, im now 25 and finally going t the physio) hopefully it wil sort it for me, have you tried it?? may help?? x

glad someone else has there head screwed on lol, great reply fran, glad you could bk up some of what i was also saying, though i havent been to see my physio yet, was reffered but cant get an app yet!! so annoying, but yeah alien if you havent tried physio yet, get a referal from a specialist, you can do this by seeing your doc 1st, mine referred me to one, and go for it! definitely the safest way is to see people whocan give you the proper real diagnosis, these are people who specialise in this field! only way to go in my opinion! good luck x

You are not alone millions of American suffer , if they can make a finger grow I hope they can restablish disc too, I am waiting technology and medicine to do something about it. Good luck!!!

Try this link it has info related to :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinal_disc_h erniation

Investigational treatments
Future treatments may include stem cell therapy. Doctors Victor Y. L. Leung, Danny Chan and Kenneth M. C. Cheung have reported in the European Spine Journal that "substantial progress has been made in the field of stem cell regeneration of the intervertebral disc. Autogenic mesenchymal stem cells in animal models can arrest intervertebral disc degeneration or even partially regenerate it and the effect is suggested to be dependent on the severity of the degeneration."[46] Successful disc regeneration in animal models, until recently, did not translate into human models. This is due to a number of factors, but primarily because the larger human disc has a greater area of nutrient poor/ avascular tissue than the smaller animal disc. Recent successful autologous mesenchymal stem cell mediated regeneration of human discs [1], however show great promise as an alternative to traditional surgery.

Thanks Trojan65! It's good to know people are looking into this. I mean, the financial implications alone of 'curing' this are quite substantial over time.
Yah, that Green fella doesn't know his stuff! Sometimes I think that prolonged incorrect running form, combined with increased flexibility from Yoga were actually the real culprit in my injury. I'm 27. Good physical shape, hurt myself on a forest fire.

Spinal issues are not the type to 'man up' for. If Greeny there really is a student of Yoga, Accupuncture and relaxation then he should most certainly know how to listen to his body. Unless he's just missing the damned point.

I have two bulging discs and have been through a lot in the past couple of years. I intuitively felt that nutrition was important and started reading everything I could on the subject. I've learned about several products that I've been taking now for 3 months that have made a big difference in my life.

Hi Zealand

My partner has a heniated disc (L5) which is also bulging and impinges on the sciatic nerve. He has been in chronic pain for 5 months now. WE have tried conservative treatment and 1 week ago he got a cortisone epidural but much to our dissapointment it offered him no relief. I am very much interested in the products you speak of above that have assisted you in pain management.

Antiscipating your info
Cheers

I have 4 bulging discs with nerve impingement..A disc in my neck was worked on but hte one below it cannot be touched..I am told the only hope is to have my spine fused or do the Pain Pump..The fusion I will not do at this time in my life..I already have enough going on..

Stem cell--I'm sorry I cannot agree with this unless the stem cells come from the umbilical chords of new born children and not manufactured children who are used for experiments..

I understand about pain but if you don't move some you will freeze up..I push myself because if I am still very long I get to where I can barely move..I am not saying a person needs to get out there and break their back but you do need to move to the best of your ability..

The only thing I think might work outside of surgery is a Pain Pump or Pain Stimulator..The pain pump I had placed for trial but ended up with a epidural headache and had to have it removed with a blood patch..I swore I would never do it again but-I am at a place again that I am thinking it will be worth another try..I am very sensitive to medications and have not found a pain pill yet that I can tolerate..

I have tried accupunture, chirpractor, cortisone injections,massage, water therapy, biofeedback, medicienes..No realhelp..

A jacuzzi/whirlpool does feel really good for a while..

Interesting possibilities with stem cell research but appears to be quite a ways off before it is more than just experimental surgery.

Personally I would prefer not to be a test subject on some kind of new procedure and wait for long term studies to show me that it is safe, affective and not going from the "frying pan to the fire".

Feel the same way about ADR.

Fran

Try spinal decompression for disc problmes (DRX9000). It helps a ton and is a good step before surgery. I have had back surgery - try to avoid that at all costs. Do decompression first (it has helped me some) and pray that they can do something with stem cells. My doc just said today that they are about 2 years (or less) away from using stem cells to help repair discs in the back. This will help millions of people of the years if it is true.

I think the guys in Hong Kong seem to be publishing a lot of papers, but I can't find any clinical trials, and I beleive this is because in large mammals there is no evidence as to the long term impact of the use of stem cells. Arthritis UK just announced the launch of a study in this area, but, yes, you guessed it, it is focused on knees.