Were you ever told to stand up straight when you were a child? Maybe we should have listened to our elder’s advice and developed good posture at an early age. Most people worldwide experience some back pain during their lives.

The good news is that there are many ways to relieve the aches that come with back pain at work. If you catch it early, most of the pain will dissipate in a relatively short time. Those with chronic back pain, however, may need medical intervention.

If you are considering a spinal surgical procedure, you should have plenty of opportunities to discuss the surgery with your doctor and touch upon the potential pros and cons of the operation. The specific advantages or disadvantages of spinal surgery will differ depending on the type of operation you are considering, as well as the underlying cause of your pain. In most cases, you will need to weigh the potential benefits of having the surgery, such as pain relief, and improved quality of life, with the disadvantages (often, reduced range of motion of the spine, along with recovery difficulties). In this post, we will explore some of the common pros and cons of spinal surgery, to help you understand what you should be considering when discussing the possibility of an operation.

Orthopedic surgery refers to any surgical procedure performed on the musculoskeletal system, which includes muscles, bones, ligaments, tendons, and joints. There are different types of orthopedic surgeries. Today, traditional operations are losing ground to minimally-invasive arthroscopic procedures that come with less pain, faster recoveries, and fewer complications. Here are some of the most common orthopedic surgeries.

Cervical spine surgery is a type of spinal surgery generally undertaken to treat one of two conditions: compression or impingement of the spinal cord or the nerves therein; or instability of the spine as a whole. Each issue requires a different cervical spine procedure. Impingement of spinal nerves demands spinal decompression surgery to relieve the pressure, while spinal instability often involves some type of spinal fusion surgery (such as the implementation of a small plate into the spine). In fact, one patient who demands one surgery may sometimes require both. Spinal decompression surgery will often cause issues with spinal stability, thus requiring fusion surgery as well. As such, many spinal surgeons are experienced in combining these two surgeries into a single procedure.

Osteoporosis is a condition that can pose a threat to your entire skeletal structure—not only the spine. The word “osteoporosis” literally translates to “porous bone.” If you have osteoporosis, your bones will begin to lose their density, becoming progressively more fragile. Often, patients exhibit no symptoms for osteoporosis early on, which means that the disease can go undiagnosed until the patient suffers a fracture. Because the spine is such a vital centerpiece to the entire body, osteoporosis of the spine is especially worrisome and is something you should discuss at length with your doctor as soon as you have a diagnosis.

Sciatica—the term for back pain caused by problems with the sciatic nerve—can be an excruciating and debilitating condition. The sciatic nerve is the largest and longest spinal nerve in the body, running from the lower back down through the buttocks and thighs. As a result, any injury to the sciatic nerve—or any pressure put upon it—can cause pain to radiate throughout the back, hips, buttocks, and legs. The sciatic nerve even delivers nerve signals to the lower legs and feet, which means that a sciatic injury can affect the entire lower body.

Millions of adults suffer from back pain every year. Most cases of back pain are related to degenerative conditions. These disorders can lead to instability and intrusion into the spinal cord as well as the nearby nerves, causing pain in the back or pain that radiates down the arms or legs. For most patients with chronic back pain, the initial treatment choices include conservative measures such as pain medications, rest, physical therapy, and chiropractic care. Sometimes, steroid injections may be used. These treatments work for many patients, but for others, they are not enough.

Most Americans will experience back pain at some point in their lives. In fact, a majority of individuals will even miss work sooner or later because of back pain and disc herniations. Doctors and patients are always on the lookout for new and effective treatments, and stem cell treatment is a promising new method that could bring much-needed relief to millions of people suffering from chronic pain. If stem cell for back pain is as effectual as it appears it will be, it could even become instrumental in lessening the opioid epidemic currently causing the death of thousands of people in the US and harming many more.

Many athletes and doctors are turning to stem cell therapy to address sports injuries such as damaged knee ligaments and Achilles tendinopathy. Stem cell treatment is still experimental, and most sports medicine doctors do not consider it standard practice, but it is growing in popularity and continues to become more common as we learn more about it.