Antibiotics relieve chronic disc pain

Bacterial infections might cause low-back pain in nearly half of patients with slipped discs. A European study found that in 46 percent of people with herniated discs, bacteria had invaded the disc tissue as it healed, causing painful swelling of vertebrae bones. When scientists tested antibiotics as a treatment, they found that patients significantly improved on every measure of pain and disability after about three months, compared with those who took a placebo. One year later, the patients had improved even more.