Antibiotics Could Cure 40% of Chronic Back Pain

Teresa Neumann : May 15, 2013
Staff – The Guardian U.K.

In an amazing medical breakthrough, doctors discover the same bacteria that causes acne can travel through bloodstream through tooth brushing and cause inflammation and damage to the vertebrae of those with slipped discs.

(Denmark)—Reports from doctors in the UK have revealed that many patients with chronic back pain were "cured" after they were treated for bacterial infections.

Calling it a "shocking finding," one of the UK's most eminent spinal surgeons, Dr. Petery Hamlyn, called the discovery the greatest he had witnessed in his professional life, saying the impact on medicine was worthy of a Nobel prize.

Hamlyn, who is a spinal surgeon at University College Hospital in London said, "This is vast. We are talking about probably half of all spinal surgery for back pain being replaced by taking antibiotics."

Dr. Hanne Albert was quick to add, "This will not help people with normal back pain, those with acute, or sub-acute pain—only those with chronic lower back pain. These are people who live life on the edge because they are so handicapped with pain. We are returning them to a form of normality they would never have expected." (Photo: NPR.org)

A report in the Guardian UK noted that a Danish team of doctors examined tissue from patients and found that nearly half tested positive and of those, more than 80% carried Propionbacterium acnes, a bacteria known to cause acne.

The bacteria "lurk around hair roots and in the crevices of our teeth," noted the report, "but can get into the bloodstream during tooth brushing. Normally they cause no harm, but the situation may change when a person suffers a slipped disc," eventually causing inflammation and damage to neighboring vertebrae.