Degenerative Disc Disease Causes

Degenerative disc disease causes are natural with age and the severity varies from person to person.

As there is a disc between each of your vertebra, these invertebral discs are meant to give the spine flexibility and act as shock absorbers to cushion the body's movements and twists. As the vertebra bones are unable to sustain repeated stress without damage, the discs play an essential role in absorbing the stress from everyday activity to trauma injuries.

Age, genetics and weight are all factors in the degenerative disc disease causes. Often, even very active people are just as at risk as a sedentary person. For example, the accountant who sits in an office chair puts three times the pressure on their back when she is sitting as she does when she runs each morning.

Imagine that each disc is a mini vacuum or hydraulic system. As the body bends and moves, the motion compresses the disc a bit and encourages water and nutrients to enter the "vacuum." Natural disc decompression combined with the factors above, or an injury leads to degenerative disc disease.

The spongy and shock absorbing character of the disc comes from the water content in the nucleus, the center area of the disc. When an injury occurs or excessive amounts of pressure, the annulus, the outer ring of the disc, can be injured. This results in little tears on the annulus ring and the body begins to build up scar tissue to protect the integrity of the disc. However the scar tissue is not as strong as the ligament tissues. This will weaken the annulus and will eventually effect the nucleus. Water will begin to leak and the disc can begin to dry up.

This can be known as a ruptured disc, torn disc, or herniated disc. And this disc degeneration may have also started with bulging discs.

With less water, the disc losses some of its shock absorbing properties and further stress is added to the annulus and more tears occur. This ongoing process can cause the nucleus to lose all of its water content. The disc then collapses and the vertabrae collapse on one another.

With less space between the two vertebrae, the facet joints in the back of the spine shift. Now the facet joints are compromised. The body works to stabilize the spinal segment and control the movement by forming bone spurs. Bone spurs, also called osteophytes build up around the disc space and by the facet joints, which is also called osteoarthritis (link!). This can be a problem when they begin to invade the spinal canal and press on the spinal cord and nerves and this can lead to spinal stenosis (link!).

As the disc degenerates, initially it may not hurt, however it can begin a snowball effect leading to other painful conditions.

Degenerative disc disease can be improved, as the discs have an natural ability to regenerate, given the right treatment. Spinal decompression with IDD Therapy® is the best available treatment for degenerative disc disease. IDD Therapy® puts the natural motion back in the discs, and space between the vertabrae, in a way that allows the discs to rehydrate and heal.

Degenerative Disc Disease Topics

• Degenerative Disc Disease
• Degenerative Disc Disease Symptoms
• Degenerative Disc Disease Treatment




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