If you suffer from chronic back pain, this could be the news you’ve been waiting to hear for years: a simple course of antibiotics could cure your symptoms.
A group of Danish researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have discovered a link between long-term back pain and an infection caused by acne bacteria. This link is so amazing that one leading expert in the field has described the discover as being “the stuff of Nobel prizes.”
According to trials, medicine to treat the infection rather than surgery to correct the pain could bring an end to the misery that millions of people around the world suffer through.
Apparently bacteria invading injury sites, like slipped discs, can result in inflammation and damage to surrounding vertebrae in the spin.
Previously infection was only believed to play a small role in back pain. However, nearly half of the slipped disc patients who took part in the trials tested positive for the acne bacteria infection.
The vast majority of infections in slipped disc patients were caused by Propionbacterium acnes – the same bug that causes acne outbreaks.
This bug secretes an acid that is capable of dissolving bone and also leads to swelling. The researchers believe that the bug is to blame for up to 40 per cent of all chronic lower back pain cases.
Getting rid of back pain: it could be as easy as taking antibiotics
As part of the study, a new form of treatment that was based on the discovery was tested. A group of 162 patients who had suffered from back pain for more than six months following a slipped disc (and who also had signs of bone swelling) were given a 100 day course of antibiotics.
Up to 80 per cent of the patients who took the antibiotics reported significant reductions in pain and disability.
“This discovery requires us to reconsider our understanding of chronic lower back pain,” said Peter Hamlyn, a neurosurgeon and spinal expert from University College London.
“One of the commonest causes of disability, lost working days and ongoing pain, chronic low back pain is an international plague. More work needs to be done, but make no mistake this is a turning point. It is the stuff of Nobel prizes,” he added.
Finally, there is hope on the horizon for the millions of people out there who have to deal with this pain on a daily basis.
