Plain-language, evidence-based guides to spinal complaints — to give you a clear picture of your scan, your symptoms and your options before any decision is made.
Typed your symptoms into an AI and it gave you a „diagnosis”? What a chatbot is useful for with a spine complaint, where its limits are, when not to wait — and how to use it for preparation, not diagnosis.
Excess weight loads the spine, but rapid weight loss takes muscle too — and that matters for the spine. Why medical supervision is key, and how to preserve muscle.
PRP is an injection made from your own blood — an option in selected cases, but it does not regenerate the disc, and most complaints do not need it. What the evidence honestly shows today.
Smoking impairs the success of fusion surgery — but it is the factor you can change the most. What we honestly know, and what you can do for your operation’s success.
Sciatica is pain radiating into the leg — most often from a disc herniation — and most cases settle within a few weeks, without surgery. What causes it, when it is urgent, and when surgery comes up.
The pain is real — but whether it becomes chronic is often decided not by the scan, but by fear of movement, avoidance and mood. What keeps it going, and what can be done.
Most back pain is not an emergency — but a few signs should not wait, and some need timely investigation. What is urgent, what is not, and what to do.
A herniation on a scan is not, in itself, a disease or a reason for surgery — it is common even in people without symptoms, and most settle without an operation. What it does, and does not, mean.