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Sciatica COLCHICINE THERAPY Every so often a great discovery occurs in medicine that can be classified as a “modern miracle” . the use of Colchicine for herniated disk and other spinal disorders is one of these miracles. Colchicine, derived from the plant Meadow Saffron, was first used by the ancient Egyptian physicians in treating arthritic problems. Today it is most commonly used to relieve the excruciating pain of acute gouty attacks. Michael Rask, M.D., who made the serendipitous discovery that Colchicine heals patients with disk disease, describes his first experience using this medication. “It was during these early years of my career that the thought occurred to me to utilize intravenous Colchicine in patients who suffered acute (or chronic) discal back pain (with or without sciatica). “I still clearly remember the very first disk patient whom I so treated with intravenous Colchicine in those early years. He was a 43-year-old craftsman who had a most severe attack of lower back pain with “sciatica”. He had had these most painful attacks before, and felt he had suffered enough. So he was planning to see a local neurosurgeon for disk surgery. When I first saw the patient in 1958, he was in most acute distress. He could hardly walk, and he listed badly because of the intensity of his back and leg discomfort. Radiographs of his lower spine showed that he had marked L4-5 disk narrowing. I gave the patient two cc’s of intravenous Colchicine, and within a few minutes, like magic, the patient’s severe back pain, sciatic scoliotic list, and his sciatica pain were completely gone! The patient felt that he was immediately “healed” from his back and leg pain. He did not keep his appointment with the neurosurgeon and returned to full-time work within a week. I saw the patient again several years later after I had completed my Orthopedic Surgery Residency, and I found he had continued to be completely well from his back pain and sciatica attacks.” Conservative therapy, such as osteopathic or chiropractic adjustment, often will relieve symptoms of herniated discs in a timely manner. However, there are times that a sciatic pain either is too slow to respond or fails to respond to adjustments. In such cases intravenous colchicines often yields dramatic improvement. Since his first patient, Dr. Rask has treated over 6,000 patients. He discovered that their relief from the disk damage pain, muscle spasm, and weakness was not temporary. Most (92%) of the patients have progressed to healing of their disk disease; using this atraumatic and virtually harmless treatment.
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