Bottom Line:

Degenerative disc disease is a condition that can affect your spinal discs as you age. Due to the stresses, injuries and hopefully good times endured throughout life, our discs begin to deteriorate and can start to cause back pain or neck pain. Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent DDD but researchers have found that there are ways you can slow the process and minimize its effects. What I am trying to mitigate with this blog post is fear. Unfortunately, DDD is a topic many healthcare professionals “disasterize" causing patients go through life thinking they're defined by this horrible disease and doomed to suffer from back pain for the rest of their lives. My goal with this post is to instill some hope, together we will face degenerative disc disease and your back pain, head-on.

Some DDD knowledge:

The spine is made up of 3 different regions: lumbar, thoracic and cervical. These regions have curves and are designed to balance and distribute the load placed on your spinal discs by gravity and activity. Many studies have found that changes in these spinal curves may increase your likelihood of experiencing back pain. We recommend that you take proactive steps to maintain a strong and flexible spine through daily exercise, core strengthening, stretching and of course chiropractic adjustments!

Other key steps to keep your discs happy and healthy include:

• Stop smoking: Medical research has shown an association between smoking and DDD. Smoking can make your symptoms worse and more painful. Plus, if you haven’t heard, smoking is really bad for your health.

• Live an active lifestyle: Movement, pretty simple here. Regular exercise helps to keep your spine mobile, strong and healthy!

• Nutrition: Our diets are notoriously known for being poor in the United States. Sticking to an anti-inflammatory diet including a balance of essential vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids is great for overall health as well as the health of your spine.

Now back to that original point…

The original thought and what is still being stressed far too often with healthcare professionals is that when we start to see this degeneration in our spines we are destined to suffer from back pain if we are not already. This is simply not true. Yes, the discs may become thinner and there may be arthritic type changes in the spine but this is not an indicator of how your back may be feeling. What research is beginning to show, is that these changes are part of the normal aging process. This article from Harvard medical school had this to say about DDD, “Degeneration in your spine is a natural part of aging. "A bulging disc, in some ways, is no different than the wrinkle next to your eye."

Now, I’m sure whoever is reading this has known someone to label themselves with this "disease".  I continually hear patients, friends and family saying I have degenerative discs, bulging discs, herniated discs, DDD, you name it. They even have the levels of the spine memorized of where they are "broken". I cringe every time I hear something like this but then begin to meet the challenge of properly educating them about their health and spine. The saddest part of the entire situation is that once someone is labeled with this disease, they believe they can’t do the things they love anymore because it will make their situation worse. I’m here to tell you not to lose hope.

“But I have an MRI that shows all these problems with my spine!” Don't reduce your spinal health down to an image. The old adage of "don't judge a book by its cover" holds true here. While MRIs are excellent at assessing spinal anatomy, they cannot distinguish between the pain driving and non-painful structures. This article from the Journal of Clinical Imaging Science says this “Imaging findings, such as disk degeneration, facet arthropathy, and disk herniations, have been attributed as causative factors for low back pain; however, these structural abnormalities are present in a large proportion of asymptomatic individuals as well and the incidence of these findings increases with age”. Now I'm not saying MRIs are a bad thing. They often do provide valuable insight for healthcare professionals to use to their advantage. However, this is not the only piece of information that should be used in the diagnosis of a person's back pain. Determining the cause of your pain should be entrusted to a musculoskeletal health professional, such as a chiropractor. Performing an extensive evaluation of the movement and stability of the spine and surrounding structures will shed some light on the actual cause of your pain.

WHAT TO DO NOW THAT DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE DOESN'T SCARE YOU ANYMORE?

Start taking a proactive approach to your spinal health today! This will give yourself the best opportunity to stay active and pain-free for years to come. To learn more about how to take a role in your spinal health visit our Facebook or Instagram page for exercises, tips and reliable health information. Better yet schedule an appointment and come work 1-on-1 with Dr. Baldwin at Michigan Complete!

Now get out there and LIVE YOUR LIFE (after quarantine is over of course)!

In Health,

Dr. Jacob Baldwin

Science Source:

MRI Changes in Lumbar Degenerative Disc Disease. EJOST. 2016.

Babying you back may delay healing. Havard Medical School. 2018

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