A skeptic explores her options for treating back pain — while avoiding the needle and the knife

It began with the sensation of pins and needles going down my right buttock and leg. As a 40-year-old runner, triathlete and yogini, I’d felt aches and pains before. But this was something different.

I’m a type A personality, so at first I ignored it. This worked, until things escalated to the point where the constant pain radiated in my back. In four months, I went from exercising six times a week — even placing third in my age group in a triathlon — to feeling an unacceptable level of discomfort that was exacerbated by the smallest things, like bending over to tie my shoes or twisting to put on my seat belt.

After a couple more months of misery, I finally paid a visit to my doctor. The MRI revealed that there were several things going on, none of them good. Two of my spinal discs, which are the body’s shock absorbers (they’re like spongy doughnuts with jelly centers), were flattened beyond where they should be, and the “jelly” was bulging out of the fibrous exterior. I also had a narrowing of the bony openings where the nerves leave the spinal column, a condition known as foraminal stenosis. The official medical diagnosis was two herniated discs, foraminal stenosis and severe degenerative disc disease of the lumbar spine...

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