Degenerative Disc Disease and Back Pain

Toronto Spinal Decompression patients who suffer with pain of degenerative disc disease come to Back Clinics of Canada for care.

Degeneration of the spinal discs is often considered a normal part of aging. For most people, this condition causes no symptoms. But for some individuals, disc degeneration can cause serious pain. This pain is predominantly felt in the lower back, hips, and down the legs (often when walking). There might even be tingling and weakness of the knees. Pain may increase with sitting, bending, lifting, and twisting. Degenerative disc disease can also cause neck pain that moves through the upper spine, and through to the shoulders arms and hands.

Understanding degenerative disc disease
The spine is made up of 24 moveable bones called vertebrae. In between each of the bones is a natural cushioned shock absorber called an intervertebral disc, or simply, a disc. It’s made of soft connective tissue called collagen. The fibers of the connective tissue keep the disc firm and resilient to withstand tension and pressure. As we move through our daily lives, the discs help our spine to move easily and absorb torsion and pressure that comes with heavy lifting, running, twisting and falling.

As we age it’s possible for a spinal disc to begin to degenerate. When this happens the soft tissue of the disc may begin to lose some of its water, a process called dehydration. As a result it often becomes thinner and weak. The disc may then begin to collapse, causing the vertebrae to shift their position. Besides being shock absorbers, the discs also create openings through which the nerves leave the spine and branch out to all parts of the body. If a disc shrinks in height, these openings might decrease—a pathology called stenosis. This typically causes nerve irritation and pain.

Degenerative disc disease affects people differently. Its impact ranges, causing serious, chronic, debilitating pain in the neck or lower back, to causing little trouble at all.

Causes of Degenerative disc disease

  • Main cause: natural aging. We can’t avoid it. We get old. Our skin loses its elasticity. Our hair turns grey. Our metabolism slows. So too the discs of the spine become drier and thinner.
  • Trauma: If there is an injury to the spine, the spinal discs may become inflamed, triggering the beginning of the process of degeneration. This can result in a disc bulge or herniation, as well as thinning of the disc.

Treatment
Non-surgical spinal decompression at Back Clinics of Canada is highly effective in alleviating the pain of degenerative disc disease. Spinal decompression enables true healing of the affected spinal discs. It works by specifically directing the forces of spinal decompression to the damaged disc. The effect of the decompression forces is to create negative pressure (a vacuum) in the disc. This vacuum helps to draw water, oxygen and nutrients back into the disc. The process is revitalizing and improves disc height. Spinal decompression is highly effective because care is directed to the root of the problem – the damaged spinal disc(s).

Many conventional treatments such as physiotherapy, registered massage therapy and medication, often address only the symptoms of back pain due to degeneration, thus providing limited, temporary pain-relief.

Patients who come to Back Clinics of Canada with serious back pain or neck pain, numbness, or trouble walking, standing, sitting or even sleeping, find that when they receive non-surgical spinal decompression, their symptoms begin to ease as the damaged disc begins to heal. Patients with degenerative disc disease report that they sleep better, can sit longer, walk farther, and move with greater ease and less pain as soon as after their first spinal decompression treatment.

Get a Consultation ASAP
The best way to determine if a patient is a candidate for spinal decompression is to undergo a rigorous evaluation at a clinic like Back Clinics of Canada, where the consultation and examination is complimentary. During this appointment the doctor will take a thorough health history and conduct a series of relevant and important tests including orthopedic, neurological, postural and muscular tests. He’ll also perform a computerized non-needle EMG test. Any available X-rays, CT scans and MRIs will be evaluated. The doctor will determine that the patient does not have any pre-existing conditions that would prevent the patient from undergoing the care.

Patients who suffer from the pain of degenerative disc disease find spinal decompression the treatment of choice because of its high long-lasting success, its non-surgical nature, that fact that it is drug-free and works robustly in such a short period of time.