Back pain cured with a single jab?

Scientists in the US believe they have created a way of curing chronic back pain with just one injection.

Tests at the Columbia Intervention Pain Center in Columbia, Missouri found that injecting bone marrow into a person's spine can help to alleviate the agony of back trouble.

During the lifetime, back pain will be encountered by 80 per cent of people. At present back trouble accounts for around 4.9 million sick days in the UK and costs the NHS £1.5 billion a year.

Dr Donald Meyer, who led the study, said: "Our goal is to help develop a safe, natural method to boost the body’s own capacity to heal disc pain."

Current treatments for back pain include painkillers, steroid injections, muscle relaxants, physiotherapy, surgery and rest. However, in most cases these merely control the pain rather than cure it.

The US study's findings have been welcomed by Arthritis Research UK.

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