Q: I have a problem of back pain which starts from my right lower hip. I am a 30 year old male. The problem started about 3-4 years back after pulling some buckets of water. I have been consulting Dr. S.P. Mandal, of Ganga Ram Hospital. The pain, when enhanced, becomes acute and I am unable to move even in the bed. A MRI was conducted and a mild disc bulge L4- L5 and L5- S1 levels were found. But after conducting a thyroid test, the TSH was found to be 6.9. My question is whether this bulge is curable and whether my thyroid problem can aggrevate the back pain. I will be much obliged if I get a prompt reply.

A:You have not elaborated on the symptom of your backache. The diagnosis of disk prolapse made in your case seems to be a radiological diagnosis. Patients with frank disc prolapse may have no symptoms or signs where as patients with minimal disc prolapse, may be very symptomatic or have clinical or physical signs of disc prolapse. The MRI finding of mild disc prolapse at L4-5 and L5 S1 cannot be taken as diagnostic of a clinical disc prolapse. Your doctor will have to assess you clinically to decide that. Having said that, if your symptoms are confirmed to be due to disc prolapse and you are having recurrent attacks of backache, surgical intervention is an option which can relieve you of your symptom. Whether it will cure you or not is difficult to answer but patients with pain radiating to the legs have a greater probability of relief from pain than those with pain confined to the back. Thyroid hormone has a bearing on bony aches and pains. Particularly patients who have hypothyroidism seem to have more musculo skeletal symptoms. Correction of the hypothyroidism in such patients usually relieves the backache.