Multiple users with severe back problems report major pain relief after beginning reta, often alongside weight loss, though some also credit earlier use of tirzepatide or topical DMSO. Improvements appeared in joints and inflammation even before substantial weight came off, and several avoided further surgeries. Core work, walking, and heat are mentioned as helpful additions.
What this discussion establisheswhether reta would help back pain in people who do not need to lose weight
Nothing here is advice.
My spine is in bad shape. I'm partially disabled at 30 and nearly needed another surgery with rods and screws. After two months on reta and dropping 25 pounds the pain dropped a lot. This drug may have given me my life back.
My problems were milder than yours but I noticed the same thing. All my joints feel much better. Tirzepatide helped first and then reta did too, with clear pain relief even before I lost much weight.
It really is a miracle drug. I was close to suicidal before starting and the side effects are there but it has given me another shot at living normally.
For me the key has been working on core strength, though losing the weight definitely helps too.
Yes. Damage from L4 to L1 was severe enough that I received steroid shots on both sides of the vertebrae. After researching the long-term effects on bone I tried something else first that took away the pain, the shooting pain down both legs, and the weakness within a week. It also helped a shoulder tear and a knee with cartilage damage. Later I started reta while looking into fatty liver and other issues. After some time on reta I stopped needing the other treatment.
Me too with a nearly vanished disc between L4 and L5 plus a slipped one at L5/S1. I went through three steroid injections and a pressure-relief procedure. The operation removed most of the leg shooting pain, so now the main problem is lower back soreness. Shedding extra pounds eased everything quite a bit. Regular long treks help plenty, such as six miles on trails each day. Pausing those outings for roughly two weeks a few months back let mild discomfort return, though far less than earlier. I nearly had vertebrae joined last year but feel lucky I followed the doctor's advice to delay.
Good job. I'm in the same situation and nothing has helped the pain except learning to live with it. Hearing it might get better is encouraging. My wife and I walk or hike three or more miles most days. I have a home gym but the heat makes it hard to use consistently.
I have never met anyone helped by back surgery, including my father, and I think medicine is still far behind on treating back pain. Reta for weight loss is only the start. I would use smaller doses even without needing to lose weight. My pain seemed tied to stress, lifestyle and extra weight but it is gone now. The first week on reta removed the swelling and it has not returned. Before reta I found 5x5 strength training the best way to build core support.
For the pain you should look into DMSO. It is my first choice now for knees, back and feet. I have also mixed it with antifungal cream to reach deeper and finally cleared a long-standing foot fungus. I think reta will fix the underlying issue while DMSO just let me stay comfortable.
Were you using it for the back pain? Sorry, I read further and the answer is already there.
I wish I lived somewhere warmer. Heat helps my pain a lot but winters here are cold and make the back worse. I can handle 100-degree days with no problem.
Heat helps but it needs to be hotter than normal summer temperatures for me. I use a sauna that reaches about 160 degrees and that works well. A large jacuzzi tub also helps when the pain flares. One reason I bought the house was the tub size. The sauna was inexpensive and still works well years later.
Haven't used Reta on my back issues, yet I noticed a clear link with Tirz making my back pain go away. Would be interested in seeing an XRAY to check, though they might not order one.
It's interesting how little connection there often is between the level of pain or symptoms someone feels and what shows up on an xray. That doesn't make every scan pointless, since mri or ct can still spot things like nerve compression, but plain back xrays frequently don't add much. It's unfortunate that a lot of standard treatments, including surgery, lack strong long-term proof they ease chronic back pain, yet they keep getting used because options are limited. GLPs do have decent evidence for helping with back pain and arthritis in general, and simply carrying less weight cuts down the load on joints and eases discomfort beyond any anti-inflammatory action.
My knee and leg pain went way down just days after beginning reta, which surprised me. I walk for at least 30 minutes most days. Plus I've got a diagnosis of bone on bone arthritis.
My back pain improved slightly once I started BPC157. Didn't realize Reta had any effect on pain?
The anti-inflammatory side of GLPs can ease pain, though the amount varies with the pain type and which GLP is used. From what I've looked into on Sema, it helps cut arthritis pain but the results differ by arthritis kind, working best on osteoarthritis. Basically it acts on OA through five separate routes while other arthritis types might see only one or two affected. Tirz and Reta work along similar lines but their activation patterns differ slightly, so the overall effect shifts a bit too.
For me, the extra weight I put on likely worsened the pain. Shedding it has made things better.
An MRI is what you need for looking at the spine, since xrays don't help much with that.
Lower back and shoulders ached for years. Started reta along with bpc/tb together. Shoulder pain vanished completely and I have full motion now, lower back pain down around 90%.
Large amounts of d3/k2/magnesium made a big difference.
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