The goals of rehabilitation, exercise, and complementary and alternative treatments for a herniated disc are to:

• Relieve pain, weakness, or numbness in the leg and lower back caused by pressure on a spinal nerve root or the spinal cord.
• Prevent further injury by learning how to take care of your back and by doing exercises that strengthen the muscles that support the lower back.
• Provide comfort and reassurance during the recovery process.

Other Treatment Choices

Learn how to take care of your back, which may include training in pain and symptom control.

• Physical therapy may be recommended by your doctor. A physical therapist can treat you with physical or mechanical means-such as through exercise or heat-and teach you exercises to do at home to strengthen the muscles that support your lower back and help prevent reinjury.
• Rehabilitation programs such as back schools teach you how to care for your back.
• Chronic pain management programs teach you to manage your pain with a combination of approaches, including medicine, physical therapy, complementary medicine, and psychological counseling.

Complementary and alternative medicine

You can use complementary and alternative medicine along with standard or conventional care to treat leg and back pain caused by a herniated disc. Although no large studies have proved the effectiveness or safety of these treatments, they may help some people. Some examples include:²

• Acupuncture.
• Massage, to help relieve pain.
• Manipulation, such as chiropractic or osteopathic therapies, which has produced mixed results for people with herniated discs but is likely to help some people.

Talk to your doctor about the potential benefits and risks before using complementary and alternative medicine to treat a herniated disc.

Experimental treatments

Research continues on herniated disc treatments that do not involve open surgery. For example, laser discectomy uses a focused beam of light to dissolve a herniated disc. Although this technology has been used by some surgeons for several years, it is considered experimental because of the lack of studies on its effectiveness and safety.² It appears to be less effective than standard discectomy.⁵

Other treatments that have been tried include removing the center of the disc, and removing all or part of the disc by using suction. These treatments are not considered to be effective.

What To Think About

Consider waiting 4 weeks before using manipulation to treat a herniated disc. Many people with a herniated disc have a significant improvement in symptoms during this time period.¹

Ask your doctor about other treatments that may help your symptoms caused by a herniated disc.