If you have degenerative disc disease you know the pain it can cause. The areas where the degeneration occurs the pain can feel so intense you may wonder if you are simply broken.
What is degenerative disc disease?
It’s a disease where the spine breaks down and loses its flexibility. It is the #1 cause of back pain. Discs that act like cushions wear down and cause friction and resulting pain.
What causes it?
Physically demanding repetitive jobs, falls, accidents, misalignment and wear and tear, smoking, bad posture over time. As the condition progresses the discs may bugle or even herniate. It can feel very much like a grinding stiff mass of possibly broken bone inside of your body despite the fact that nothing is actually broken or chipped. It can be disturbing, hard to deal with and scary. It can become distracting to the point of finding it difficult to go on with everyday life.
The good news is that there most certainly is help, and it lies in chiropractic treatment. In many cases, even just the first treatment can bring some level of relief. When patients are treated in a course or series of treatments, relief on some level, varying by damage, is almost always found.
The Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation conducted a study with 40 male participants ages 30-40. All had diagnoses of degenerative lumbar disease. They were split into two groups. One given a placebo treatment and the other spinal manipulation. The results showed that the group receiving the spinal manipulations recovered far more quickly.
What are the presenting symptoms?
Debilitating Pain
Numbness
Tingling
Feeling a crunching of uncomfortable movement in the area
All may radiate from the affected area
How it’s treated
Chiropractic spinal manipulation (adjustments), exercise, decompression therapy, manual therapy, massage and trigger point therapy, ultrasound, ice, heat and interferential electrotherapy as well.
These have all been shown, especially when used in conjunction, to help reduce pain and even prevent further impairment.
Don’t live with pain. I have treated many patients with degeneration of the pelvis and hip joints. It starts as a simple misalignment of the pelvis. When the pelvic bones misalign, the hips cannot ride in the hip sockets like it was designed.
The first symptom is hip pain which may come and go, then progresses to bursitis, then on to osteoarthritis, and eventually, leads to hip replacement. It can be prevented!