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Nov 3rd 2025
Trade in the Back Pain for Osteoporosis
. . . epidural steroid injections lead to significant bone loss
It’s estimated that 8 out of 10 people will experience back pain at some point during their lives, especially with age. Physical therapy together with non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDS) is conventional medicine’s approach to alleviating back pain. If this fails, epidural steroid injections (ESIs) are often suggested.
However any benefit derived from ESIs comes at a cost to your health. A new study confirms that one of these costs can be significant bone loss.
In a study published last December in the journal Spine, 28 postmenopausal women aged 65 and older with lower back pain were given ESIs. Their bones were then evaluated over the next six months. Although half of the women dropped out for various reasons, by the end of the study the remaining 14 were found to have lost a significant amount of bone at the hip – six times as much as age-matched controls.
Steroids are extremely powerful drugs. While they do alleviate pain, they are known to cause bone loss. They also knock out your immune system, making you more susceptible to infections and cancer. Chronic steroid use can cause diabetes, high blood pressure, depression, weight gain, ulcers, and cataracts as well as atrophy of the thymus and adrenal glands.
Since it is inflammation that causes pain, a better approach to alleviating pain is to reduce inflammation naturally and address the infection or irritation causing the inflammation.
For symptomatic relief of pain, start by getting on an anti-inflammatory diet and getting inflammatory chemicals out of your life (see Raymond’s article on Inflammation). Then use anti-inflammatory nutrients like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamins A, B complex (including folic acid, B6 and B12), C, D, and E, plus Age Defense Formula, carotenes, CoQ10, curcumin, quercitin, selenium, N-acetylcysteine, and alpha-lipoic acid, and proteolytic enzymes.