Facebook Pixel
Q: 

Does anyone know of a natural treatment/relief for degenerative disc disease?

By September 23, 2008 - 7:43pm
 
Rate This

Short of surgery, is there anything you can do for degenerative disc disease? Has anyone noticed improvement through stretching or exercise? Diet, any supplements? Surgery is an absolute last resort. Thanks.

Add a Comment23 Comments

EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

I was in a car accident and started to feel the effects of DDD. I wanted to know everything about my condition so I started studying everything I could. I did change my diet and exercize habits and to my surprise, it started feeling better!! it's not all the way gone, but I do feel a lot better. Currently I am taking fish oil. flax-seed, wheat germ and vitamin D and calcium. Not sure why but it is working!!

November 30, 2011 - 2:02am

I was just very recently diagnosed with this & my doctor is recommending that I try the Feldenkrais Method of neuromuscular reeducation. I'm hoping to start next week. Will know more about what they do after this. He said he went to them twice a week for about 10 weeks & it helped his back problems dramatically. Instead of just covering up the pain, I think you are re-training your muscles to possibly correct some of the problem.

March 20, 2010 - 5:37pm
EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous (reply to Denny Lou)

I think that's an important thing to note too...masking the pain is one thing, fixing it is another. methylfolate, methylcobalamin and proline/lysine combo along with vitamin C 1000-2000 mg will help heal the damage. resveratrol/Vitamin D3 are anti-inflammatory, and can prevent more damage but so far it does not appear to heal it. It always seems to be at least a 2 pronged approach. I'm going to look into the Feldenkrais Method too! Thanks!

December 13, 2016 - 8:43am
(reply to Denny Lou)

Denny Lou,
Thanks for sharing your story, and we would love to hear back from you in 10 weeks (or earlier, throughout your process), so that we can learn more about your experiences with this method.

Best wishes, and hope to hear back from you!

March 21, 2010 - 7:50am
EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous

I love my chiropractor and would recommend regular chiropractic care! There are almost always side effects to surgeries, prescriptions, injections, and all that medical stuff. Think NATURAL as you already seem to be doing - yay ;)

Degenerative disc disease is not actually a disease, but rather a condition in which your discs degenerate or lose their flexibility and ability to cushion your spine. With regular chiropractic care, you can keep your spine healthy and that includes your nervous system which controls all other systems in your body. You can't reverse the degenerative damage you have experienced, but you can prevent it from becoming worse. I think if everyone was under chiropractic care since they were a baby, we would all feel so much better. Thankfully, I was one of the lucky ones and was adjusted since birth :)

Chiropractic adjustments return the joints to more normal motion and remove any nervous system interference. Good joint motion is essential for the health and nutrition of the discs and joints because it permits the exchange of nutrients, fluids, and waste. Good motion also helps reduce pain, muscle spasms or imbalance, and improves nervous system function and overall health. Without movement, discs and joints may degenerate more quickly than normal.

Best wishes! I hope you are under chiropractic care :)

July 21, 2009 - 8:26am

A good friend of mine was in a serious car accident and suffered spinal injury. For the past few years, he has undergone prolotherapy with excellent results. I have rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis and mild scoliosis, and have been considering prolotherapy.

It's great to see that you've mentioned this alternative to back surgery. My orthopedic surgeon is also in favor of non-surgical alternatives, thank goodness!

November 19, 2008 - 8:50pm

First of all, Chiropractic can alot of the time relieve symptoms of degenerative disc disease BUT it does not cure or reverse the condition.
Now there is some truth to chiropractic care preventing DDD.
If you've ever seen a spine model you see that 2 vertebrae surround the disc. As a person bends and twists throughout the day the disc gets pumped(called imbibition) between the vertebrae. This pumping allows old fluid to leave the disc and new fluid to enter.
Now imagine a vertebra "stuck" or misaligned. There is now NO motion to the disc and 5-10 years later the disc has dehydrated and thinned(loss of healthy fluid). The next step is the body starts to worry about the weakened disc so it lays down more bone and you start to see bone spurs(osteophytes) around the disc. This is a slow process (10-20 years to see small spurs) but lets the physician "date" how long you've had a problem.
So letting a chiropractor restore motion to a misaligned vertebra will help maintain the health of the disc, thus preventing DDD.

November 19, 2008 - 8:37pm

The Mayfield Spine Institute in Cincinnati is one of the largest groups of spine specialists in the Midwest. While they are connected to the Mayfield Clinic Spine Surgery Center, their website also has very good explanations of various spine problems and good information on such things as physical therapy and acupuncture, with links to reputable sites on these areas.

In terms of available treatments, the site discusses self care (posture in sitting, standing and sleeping habits, and stress control), exercise, chiropractic manipulation, medication and holistic treatments.

The Mayfield site is http://www.mayfieldclinic.com/PE-DDD.htm

Also, WholeHealthMD.com offers a reference library you can search. If you do a search on degenerative disc disease treatment, articles come up that discuss individual supplements and what they are used for.

Chronic pain can be difficult to live with. Have you been managing this condition for a long time?

September 24, 2008 - 8:38am

Through the years I have encountered many patients who have been diagnosed with Degenerative Disc Disease. One treatment that by far help correct the origins of the problem is Prolotherapy. Prolotherapy addresses the ligament instabilities that lead to conditions like degenerative disc disease and ultimately help to correct such problems and pain.

Here is brief description from prolotherapy.com:

"Many patients are distressed at being told that they are suffering from one or more degenerated discs. This suggests an irreversible and crippling phenomenon. The term "degenerated" should be discarded because disc degeneration is universal as age advances, and often causes no symptoms. There must be other structures in the back that are causing the symptoms. The structures causing back pain are most often the ligaments.
-
The low back is composed of muscles and ligaments. The posture is held erect by four sets of muscles. There are also strong ligaments that go from the vertebrae to the ilium (iliolumbar ligaments), along with the ilium to sacrum (the sacroiliac ligaments).
-
Cumulative trauma either by sports participation or heavy labor vocations over the course of years can result in small tears of these ligaments. One major trauma or injury can also be of such severity that healing never occurred. Since the ligaments do not heal, the intervertebral discs do not have the support that they need. This is why there is such a high degree of degenerative disc disease in the lower back, which is essentially 100 percent by age 46. Degenerative discs are the result of ligament laxity or instability in the lumbar vertebral segments. The instability and ligament laxity cause the chronic low back pain and send patients by the droves to chiropractors. Manipulation is helpful to realign the vertebrae, but does nothing to regenerate the damaged ligament. Prolotherapy must be given to repair the ligament tissue to allow the vertebrae to stay in place permanently.
-
Prolotherapy can be the treatment of choice for treating low back pain. Injections are typically given into the ligaments connecting the vertebra, along with injections into the ligaments between the ilium and sacrum. This helps to tighten the connections between the pelvis and lumbar spine and assists the muscles in providing stability to the back. It is amazing how many people end up avoiding surgery once they have Prolotherapy because Prolotherapy gets rid of the pain and stabilizes the back. Unfortunately, back surgery usually causes the muscles and ligaments to become even weaker. A surgery that was supposed to strengthen the area actually ends up weakening it to the point that the non-surgerized back is stronger than the back that was surgically repaired."

For more information on prolotherapy and to find a doctor in your area:

http://www.getprolo.com

Dr.Susan
http://www.lakeshorewellnesscenter.com

September 24, 2008 - 6:04am
EmpowHER Guest
Anonymous (reply to Dr. Susan)

Dr. Susan, I would like to add that ligamentous microtrauma is not the only mechanism of the acquisition of degenerative disc disease. More commonly is the loss of imbibition of the intervertebral disc, causing a loss in disc height. A short background on the intervertebral disc:
The intervertebral disc is a structure located between each spinal segment which helps with the absorption of forces from motion of the body (both gravitational and torsional). The structure itself is avascular; it relies on the blood vessels located in each vertebrae for nutrition. Water and other nutrients pass through the bottom layer (endplate) of the vertebrae to supply the disc. Water is indeed an important aspect of disc health; it provides height and structural integrity to the disc in order to resist the forces placed upon the spine. Proteoglycans are the molecules responsible for attracting and holding water in the intervertebral disc. As we age, we lose a concentration of proteoglycans. This process is aided by a calcification of the endplates of each vertebrae. More on this topic to come.

With the proteoglycans affected, the mechanics of the spine are altered. The disc attempts to lay down type 2 collagen fibers in an attempt to repair the now-vulnerable disc. Any damage within the structures will cause an inflammatory cascade. This anaerobic environment will decrease the amount of proteoglycans produced, leading to further degeneration.

Calcification of the endplates is another problem. If the nutrient channels on the endplates are occluded, nutrients such as water cannot pass through to give the disc the structural components that it needs. This feeds into the cycle of degeneration. It follows that metabolic waste cannot exit the disc if the endplates are calcified. This serves to further the process of inflammation and apoptosis (programmed death of a cell).

With so many degenerative processes occurring, pain is sometimes a manifestation of degenerative disc disease. With the release of inflammatory chemicals comes signals for neurogenesis, or the growth of nerves into the area of injury. This means that the injured area becomes hypersensitive because there are more nerves supplying it.

Interestingly, one of the only proven ways to increase flow into and out of the disc is through physical motion of the joint. This is precisely what chiropractors are trained to do. We find, using our hands, joints in the body which are not moving as they should and create motion in the joints by physically breaking adhesions. In as little as a few days with a joint that is not moving properly, microscopic degeneration is noted. In a person who has already acquired signs and symptoms of degenerative disc disease, chiropractic manipulation will aid in slowing the progression of the disease for the reasons stated above.

Chiropractors value a non-invasive approach to treatment. We do not utilize injections or other invasive forms of treatment that some other practitioners may use. In addition to adjusting the joints of the body, we may prescribe exercises as necessary. Dr. Susan, chiropractic adjustments and exercises would be a great alternative for those who do not wish to receive injections. Please reply if you have any questions and I would be happy to provide answers or references for the statements made here.

December 14, 2009 - 9:46am
Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
By submitting this form, you agree to EmpowHER's terms of service and privacy policy
Add a Comment

All user-generated information on this site is the opinion of its author only and is not a substitute for medical advice or treatment for any medical conditions. Members and guests are responsible for their own posts and the potential consequences of those posts detailed in our Terms of Service.

Degenerative Disc Disease

Get Email Updates

Related Topics

Degenerative Disc Disease Guide

Have a question? We're here to help. Ask the Community.

ASK

Health Newsletter

Receive the latest and greatest in women's health and wellness from EmpowHER - for free!