Treatment may include occupational therapy, physical therapy, or both, special exercises, medications, losing weight, and surgery. Medical options include injecting the joints next to the damaged disc with steroids and a local anesthetic. These are called facet joint injections. They can provide effective pain relief.
People with degenerative disk disease need to avoid foods that promote inflammation and physical activities involving heavy lifting and twisting. Additionally, a person should avoid smoking, if applicable, slouching, and consuming more than moderate amounts of alcohol.
Other treatments for degenerative disc disease
While medications can help, adding in other treatments is usually most effective. These include: Body-focused therapies: Some examples are physical therapy, acupuncture, and massage therapy.
Doctors at NYU Langone offer nonsurgical treatment to relieve back or neck pain caused by degenerative disc disease. Pain medication and physical therapy can manage symptoms and help the body adjust to the damaged disc.
Drinking water and keeping properly hydrated in general supports disc health, and the best way to help with degenerative disc disease is through prevention, including drinking water. Exercises for your back and maintaining a healthy body weight will also help prevent or mitigate degenerative disc disease.
Risk Factors for Degenerative Disc Disease
Excessive strain on the low back caused by sports, frequent heavy lifting, or labor-intensive jobs. Strain on the lumbar spinal discs due to prolonged sitting and/or poor posture. Lack of support for the discs due to weak core muscles. Obesity.
Regular aerobic exercise, such as walking, swimming, or taking a low-impact aerobics class, has been shown to help relieve pain, promote a healthy body weight, and improve overall strength and mobility—all important factors in managing DDD.
Live an Active Life and Include Exercise
Ask any spine specialist about the one thing you can do to slow the progression of degenerating discs and they'll likely tell you to stretch. Basically, this translates to taking your joints through a full range of motion and doing so regularly.
In order to be eligible for Social Security Disability, your disc disease has had to progress into a severe form that has impacted the vertebrae so it causes chronic pain and impacts your ability to stand or sit for significant periods of time, which can be made evident through medical imaging.
Smoking may, in fact, speed up spinal degeneration. It can also create instability in ligaments, which may make the back more prone to injury. People who carry a lot of excess weight are more likely to show symptoms of DDD. Being obese is a force multiplier that subjects the body to more strain.
Although DDD is not reversible or curable, the pain flareups that are associated with it can be treated. A pain specialist can offer you medications and pain-relief injections to control the pain.
avoiding high impact exercises — which include jumping on a trampoline, jumping rope, step aerobics, and sprinting — immediately after sustaining a disk injury. talking with a physical therapist before starting a new exercise routine, as a person may need to build their core strength before being able to exercise ...
Pain reduction that allows you to perform rehabilitative exercises is essential in any long-term program to manage DDD. As the pain is cause by both instability and inflammation, both of these must be addressed. Use proper ergonomics and posture to avoid stress on the spine. Proper lifting technique is very important.
One of the classic symptoms of DDD is pain that worsens when you've been sitting for a lengthy period of time. This is because sitting puts much more pressure on your low back than when you're standing.
Stage 4 is considered severe DDD because it is challenging or impossible to reverse in many cases. It may still be possible to treat the condition and improve your quality of life though. Typically, treatment will involve some physical activity and exercises to reduce pain levels.
Chiropractic treatment for degenerative disc disease can reduce inflammation in the spinal tissues, improve the range of motion of the spine, and relieve muscle tension. Chiropractic treatments can also reduce pressure on the spine, specifically the spinal discs, to promote healing.
By the age of 35, approximately 30% of people will show evidence of disc degeneration at one or more levels. By the age of 60, more than 90% of people will show evidence of some disc degeneration. Degeneration itself is normal, and does not necessarily cause pain.
Movement stretching are all really important parts of managing degenerative disc disease and can help really alleviate your symptoms.
Massage therapy is a great way to reduce muscle tension and alleviate pain and other symptoms caused by DDD. Using therapeutic massage, practitioners can apply carefully targeted pain and tension relief where patients need it the most.
Sleep on your stomach with a pillow under your abdomen
When sleeping on your stomach, try placing a pillow under your lower abdomen. This position is typically recommended for people who have degenerative disc disease. It can relieve stress that lingers between your discs.
Degenerative disk disease occurs when the cushioning in your spine begins to wear away. The condition is most common in older adults. After age 40, most people experience some spinal degeneration. The right treatment can lead to pain relief and increased mobility.
But they can be related. DDD can cause spinal osteoarthritis in some patients. The key difference is that degenerative disc disease describes what is happening to the spinal discs. These changes in the discs can then lead to arthritis or radiculopathy such as sciatica or a pinched nerve in the neck.
Degenerative Disc Disease is not life threatening, but if left untreated, can lead to debilitating pain, permanent damage, and serious conditions such as spinal osteoarthritis, herniated discs, spinal stenosis and potentially paralysis.