Lactic acid that makes running agony eases back pain

A jab which contains a chemical that our body releases during strenuous exercise could help treat chronic back pain. Researchers are injecting lactic acid, which causes the painful burning sensation in our muscles, into discs in the spine. (Damaged discs are thought to be a major cause of back pain.)

The theory is that lactic acid plumps up the damaged disc to make it stiffer, which means nerves are less likely to get trapped and cause pain.

around 80 per cent of adults have back pain at some point and one in four cases is caused by disc problems.

The discs in the spine are small cushions between bones that work as shock absorbers and allow flexibility as they prevent the bones of the spine rubbing together.

Discs are made of an outer ring of tough connective tissue — mainly collagen — and a moist, gel-like middle.

From the age of 30, the outer hard casing becomes stiff and more likely to crack, and the gellike inner section starts to lose some of its water content.

as the discs degenerate they provide less cushioning for the spine and are prone to slipping out of position, or herniating.

a slipped disc can compress one of the nerves in the back, which in turn leads to numbness and pain along the affected nerve. It may also cause sciatica, where pain runs down the leg.

Treatments include exercise or physiotherapy and painkillers. In severe cases patients may be offered surgery to fuse the discs together, or to replace damaged discs.

but while surgery will relieve pain, it can limit movement.

The new jab differs as it’s designed to stiffen the disc in order to prevent future degeneration. Known as sTa-363, it is given as a single jab into the damaged disc. It’s thought that lactic acid then triggers the production of more connective tissue and collagen, to make the disc stiff but strong.

ThaT, says the developer stayble Therapeutics, will make the disc more stable and won’t compress any nerves as they are no longer able to grow into the repaired disc.

‘a single treatment is presumed to be effective within four to 12 weeks, last the patient’s entire life and require no extensive rehabilitation,’ say the researchers.

Experiments on pigs, reported by the company, have shown that discs injected with the treatment do get stiffer compared to those not injected.

In a new study at the stockholm spine Center in sweden, 15 patients will be given one of three doses of the lactic acid jab, or a placebo.

It seems that they are using lactic acid to essentially accelerate ageing of discs for the treatment of discogenic pain [pain originating from the spine discs], says Professor sam Eldabe, a consult- ant in pain medicine at james Cook university hospital in Middlesbrough. ‘There is reasonable science behind the study.

‘While this is a common cause of lower back pain, identifying this population is not a simple exercise as most back pain patients have a number of causes. I look forward to the results when they are published as the therapy appears to be quite a simple one.’

MEaNWhILE it’s reported that having a spinal cord stimulator — a tiny battery-powered transmitter similar to a pacemaker — fitted for chronic pain stops patients needing as many painkillers.

Researchers at jefferson university in the u.s. monitored 5,000 people with chronic pain and found that one year after having the spine implant fitted, 93 per cent of patients were on lower daily doses of morphine and other painkilling drugs.

The stimulators emit mild electric signals designed to disrupt and mask the pain messages travelling from nerves to the brain, so that symptoms become less severe.