Several years ago, my husband had to have back surgery for a herniated disc.  The human spine is set up with discs of soft material as a cushion between the vertabre.  They are kind of like water balloons, so if the outer layer ruptures, the soft material inside balloons out and can cause problems by pushing against the nerves that run down the spine.  In my husband’s case, he was having a lot of pain, numbness, and loss of strength in his left leg as a result of the herniated disc.

As my husband found out, good back pain relief is hard to come by.  Most over-the-counter painkillers don’t even begin to cut through the pain, and of course taking more than the recommended dose, or taking stronger prescription painkillers, can be hard on your body — especially over long periods of time.  But the pain caused by chronic back problems is so debilitating that you really need some type of effective pain management.

There are other, alternative methods of pain management, of course.  One of the best well-kept secrets is the connection between magnet and healing.  Studies have found that when placed in a certain way directly over an irritated nerve, a magnetic field can actually block the pain transmission from the nerve to the brain.  Magnets are therefore a very unexpected, but very effective way of managing chronic back pain.

Just make sure that if you do have something like my husband’s herniated disc, something that requires surgery, you have it taken care of — masking the symptoms and leaving a problem untended can actually invite worse injury!

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