What is Degenerative Disc Disease?What is Degenerative Disc Disease? / Questions
So, what is DDD? Well, let’s start with what it is NOT. First, it is NOT a disease. It is a NOT a causation of chronic pain in the vast majority of diagnosed patients. It is NOT a source for concern in the vast majority of patients. It is certainly NOT a reason to seek
back pain
treatment in the vast majority of diagnosed patients. DDD is NOT unusual or unexpected. If you find that you are diagnosed with DDD, especially in your lumbar spine or cervical spine, you should not be surprised. If
degenerative disc disease
is not generally a villain or a source of painful symptoms, then what is it?
What is Degenerative Disc Disease? / AnswersDegenerative disc disease is a terrible name for a series of processes which occur normally and naturally in every human on the planet. As we age, the spinal discs lose moisture and their ability to retain moisture. This causes them to shrink in mass, height and circumference. This is what is called DDD. Personally, I do not use the term, since it is incredibly scary sounding and misleading. Why call something a disease that is NOT a disease? I prefer the name disc degeneration, since this is more accurate. I agree that extreme levels of disc degeneration can be potentially problematic, although I have yet to actually come across one case myself. After all, I only deal with tens of thousands of back pain patients a year, so what do I know??? In my experience, DDD is yet another scapegoat on which back pain is blamed, although it is rarely the correctly identified source of symptoms.What is Degenerative Disc Disease? / AdviceOk, so let’s get back to the controversial beginning of this article to handle the anger issues of all the doctors reading this…I am a firm believer that most doctors and chiropractors truly want to do good for their patients. I also believe that most would never intentionally misdiagnose a patient, especially not for the sake of profit. However, I also know for a fact that some do impose mythical and ludicrous nonsense into the minds and hearts of patients simply to put money in their pockets. Others do it out of ignorance or because they do not know what else to tell patients who want answers… Some are stuck in the medical industry of 10, 20, 30 or even 40 years ago. Remember DDD is the ideal scapegoat, since it is always there. I never saw your MRI report, but I can already tell you that DDD is likely to be there to one degree of another… What is Degenerative Disc Disease to Herniated Disc 5/18/10 Revised 7/16/11 |
Sensei Adam Rostocki
Mission Statement
Editorial Board
Legal
Privacy Policy
Site Funding Disclosure
Source Material