Back Pain – Why Injections Are Helpful & Harmful

Have you considered getting an injection to help you with a lower back problem? Well, I’m going to tell you today about why they’re helpful, and why they’re harmful.

But real quick, my name is Dr. David Middaugh. And I’m a specialist physical therapist over at El Paso, manual physical therapy. I’ve been helping people out with all sorts of back pain problems over the years, ranging from disc issues, arthritis, for set problems, pinched nerves, sciatica issues, and much, much more.

I can tell you that over 50% of the clients, that have come in here, have tried injections at some point to help their back problem. And in certain situations, it’s definitely necessary, it’s definitely something that’s going to help them out. And in other situations, it’s definitely the wrong thing to be doing. You got to be careful about whether to choose to do it or not.

It’s not always straightforward as just following whatever your doctor tells you, you got to make an informed decision about whether or not to have an injection in your body. The reason for that is a physician that administers an injection is always trying to do good by you. They’re trying to make sure that they’re helping you in the situation that you’re currently in.

But what they don’t always have a chance to hear, and understand about you is what your personal life is like, what your relationships in your life are like, what kind of work obligations you have the level of physical activity that you must do at work or not do if you’re more of a desk worker, all those things need to be factored in when having injections, especially if they’re repeated injections. As many physicians like to do, all this stuff has to be factored in, in making a decision to get an injection or not.

Now, if you show up at a doctor’s office, and are considering having an injection and that physicians considering giving you an injection, then it’s probably going to happen that you have an injection. But what I need you to understand is what is going on here, how is this affecting your body? What’s the long-term effect of this injection? Is there going to be more injections? Possibly? And what’s the plan for the long-term solution here, because injections are not a long term solution.

I’ll tell you why here in a moment. Before I get into all that, though, let me tell you how injections help and when it’s a good time to have them. Now they definitely can help reduce pain and inflammation. As long as the injected medication reaches the target tissue, the pain generating tissue, as people call it, the medical field, it can actually take away the pain and reduce the inflammation.

There’re different schools of thought on whether or not the inflammation is good or bad, I definitely side with it’s a good thing to have inflammation. And even, it’s a good thing to have pain, because it’s the body’s way of telling you something’s not right, fix me, please. But fixing it is always confusing, even for people in the medical field. So getting an injection might be a better solution in the short term.

Now, if you are not sleeping at all, because of your lower back issue, and you just need to get some sleep, sleep is important for healing sleeps important for just being a normal person. Otherwise, you’re grumpy and you’re not yourself. It’s important for your relationships. Because if you’re grumpy, not yourself, and you might treat people not the way they deserve to be treated. And it’s not that you mean to do that you’re just in pain I’ve been there, I know that situation. So if that’s you, then getting an injection might be a good idea in the short term.

Now, if you just can’t work because of your back problem, and you’re considering getting an injection just to be able to get through a work day, without having to frequently stop or interrupt your concentration, then it might be a good idea to get an injection in the short term just to make it through the next couple of days or weeks depending on how long that the effects of the injection lasts for you.

Work is important you got to make a living, you got to make sure that you take care of yourself as well. Which leads me to the next point. Taking care of your responsibilities is another important thing in your life, it might be a good reason for you to get an injection. If you’re taking care of children, if you’re alone, taking care of children, you better make sure that your back’s not going to stop you from being able to do everything you have to do for those kiddos.

So, getting an injection might be beneficial in the short term just to make sure that your kids are healthy and safe and that they’re properly cared for. And then there’s other things in life like pets that you need to take care of the just the cleanliness of your home, you don’t want to live in a place that is potentially unhealthy and going to make you sick in other ways. To be able to do your chores at home and able to take care of the house, the outside of the house, the inside of the house, your own self care, taking a shower, making sure that your clothes are clean.

All those things require your back to be healthy. And if you just can’t do them because your back is bothering you so much. Then in the short-term getting injection may not be a bad idea. Now we’re assuming that you’ve tried over the counter payment occasion. Which is probably safer than getting an injection. And if you’ve been to the physician, they probably should have tried giving you some sort of prescription strength pain medication, that’s probably safer than injection as well.

I’m not saying go straight to the injection, having never tried over the counter pain medication or prescription string pain medication, you always got to follow the advice of your physician, I gotta just give you the disclaimer here. I am not a physician, I’m not a medical doctor. I’m a Doctor of Physical Therapy, I handle mechanical problems, which lower back pain is my bread and butter. I do that all the time.

But as a result of me treating people with lower back pain, in my scope of practice as a physical therapist treating mechanical problems, I always have to answer questions about how medications are harmful or beneficial for patients. So that’s why I can speak on this topic, not telling you what to take Exactly. or who to see for your specific back problem. My intent here is just to inform you so that you can make the best decision about your back problem.

Now, let me tell you why injections can be harmful for you. The number one reason is repeated injections, which is frequently done is known, there’s hard evidence, hard science on this, it’s known to break down connective tissue. That’s what you hear about in the medical field.

But let me tell you what connective tissue is. It’s all over a body, especially in the spine, its ligaments, its tendons, its discs, it’s parts of muscle, it’s parts of bone as well. The common medicine that’s injected whenever an injection for pain is done in the lower back is called a corticosteroid or cortisone injection, that medication is known to take away pain, relief, relieve or bring down the inflammation, but also break down connective tissue.

The mechanism of how it works is up in the air right now. My thinking on it is inflammation is the first step in healing. Which means that if you’re stopping that process, because cortisone stops inflammation, then you never really allow the connective tissue to heal like it should, so that you can get the stability that you need because ligaments, tendons discs provide stability to the lower back.

So, getting repeated injections just allows that medication to stay there and never allow the problem to heal. And here’s the big thing that most people in the medical field are missing. And most people that are dealing with the back problem, just don’t get because it’s not commonly talked about the root problem is not addressed by an injection.

The pain itself is not the root problem, that’s a secondary effect of a root problem that is yet to be treated because the pain is still there. And injection doesn’t solve that inflammation is not the root problem. That’s also a byproduct of something else that’s happening that’s causing that inflammation to happen, which is usually generating the pain. This is this is my big reason for not getting repeated injections.

Now, like I said, it can be helpful. If you’re not sleeping well, not having good relationships, not working that taking care of yourself, you definitely need to get some sort of pain relief so that you can take care of those things. But simultaneously, you should be on some plan or starting or searching for some plan to fix the root problem of the back issue, whether it’s a disc problem, a stuck join a pinched nerve, whatever it is, if you’re thinking of going to the doctor right now or sometime very soon to get an injection or you’ve been told that you might need an injection because the oral pain medications aren’t working, then I would also be looking for some natural long term solution for your back problems simultaneously.

Ideally, like what we do here in the clinic is we get patients to come in they’re saying I’m thinking of getting an injection, look at me, I can’t even sit still my back is killing me I can’t lie down, I can’t walk, I can’t do this, I can’t do that. I’ll say please go get the injection, like you’re planning on doing you’re thinking about this correctly. Go see the doctor if you need me to call them to try to get you in quicker I will and get your injection get the relief that you’re looking for so that you can go sleep and take care of your things.

But let’s also start treatment here simultaneously so that once the effects of the injection were off once the pain is relieved, once you can concentrate and think better and you’re not having marital problems or just problems with your family or you’re not running into other issues because of the pain. Then we have a shot at fixing this problem naturally. So you’re not having to have another injection in a few months just to have the same kind of pain relief that you’re that you’ve got with the first injection.

That’s a much better plan. So you really only have one injection ever, but you’re doing things to solve this problem naturally. So it’s not coming back here in the clinic when we help people with back pain, we teach them exactly what to do so that when the back problem starts to creep up, if it does, they know what exercises to work on what movements to do, they know what to do, so that it doesn’t get to the point where they feel like they need another injection again.

Now there’s one more scary thing about the injections that I’m always concerned about with patients, especially the patients that come in that are severely affected with low back pain. Typically, if you get repeated injections, of course, the connective tissue breaks down. But it gives people the false sense of improvement, it makes them think that the injection is fixing their back problem. And when this happens, it allows the root of the problem to get worse, because oftentimes, the root of the problem is some sort of muscle imbalance, which translates to some muscle being weak in one area of the body in some muscle, nearby elsewhere is too strong.

It’s imbalanced and it’s putting bad pressures on the lower back, which is causing the back problem. And that’s a whole process to figure out if that weakness isn’t addressed. And people are just getting injections over and over again, the connective tissue that the cartilage, the discs, the ligaments and tendons are not healing properly, they’re breaking down actually. And that weakness is there.

On top of that, you’re on the track to getting some sort of disc herniation, some disrupter, some massive problem, that’s going to put a person on a track to eventually need some sort of surgery. I get super concerned about repeated injections because the root problem is not being addressed. And it’s in fact allowed to grow into a more severe lower back pain problem.

So if that’s you, you already had an injection or two, and you’re thinking, well, it worked the last time, I’ll just keep getting injections until the doctor tells me No, or you don’t really have another plan, I never even considered some other solution, I just get injection whenever my back hurts, please take this into consideration and stop getting injections or, or have some secondary plan some side plan to fix this problem naturally, so that you’re not having to rely on injections to get better.

If you’ve been watching this video and you’re thinking, I probably need to hire these people to make sure my back problem isn’t going to get worse, and so that I can end taking injections. If possible, then here’s what you have to do. Go up to the cost and availability form of top right here, you’ll get taken to a page where you can leave us your details, want to hear all about your back pain problem.

Once we get your information, one of my staff will call you back and see if it’s the right type of back problem that we can help well here in the clinic, so that we can make sure to give you the next steps on what to do if it’s not the type of problem that we can help and want to make sure to let you know right away so that we’re not wasting your time and we can direct you to the right person.

We’re pretty good at handling back problems here naturally without medications, injections and surgery, of course. So if you are suffering from a back pain problem, don’t wait. Give us a call right away. You can also just call us at 915-503-1314 or like I said hit that cost and availability button up top and leave us your information. I hope you have the best day and I hope we can be a part of your success story really soon. Have a wonderful day.