Question: I am a 79 year old very active man with type 2 diabetes and an arthritic lumbar spine. My kidney doctor prohibits NSAIDS, and tramadol makes me nauseous as well as codeine and morphine. Any suggestions for alleviating back pain? Would decompression machines help?

Dr. Hibberd's Answer:
If is difficult to answer your question without knowing about your underlying health. The decompression machines are reported to relieve pain by those that market them, but I have not seen evidence of long-lasting relief when treating arthritic osteoporotic and degenerative disc disease in older patients.
There are legions of options left for relief of pain, from topical patches and local blocks to other oral medications. Ask your doctor to refer you to a pain management specialist and request an orthopedic surgery and physiotherapy consultation to see if other modalities are worth investing your time (and money). I recommend you consult a good family medicine or general internal medicine physician to help you recoup your quality of life. They will also guide your specialty consultations, often getting you in much sooner than you can on self-referral.