Are you feeling pain all over your body?
About 50 million American adults have chronic pain, with around 19 million saying they experience a higher level of pain than the rest. The pain is often enough to hinder productivity as it incapacitates most people. However, most people don’t consider that what they’re experiencing may be degenerative disc disease.
To find out whether this is the case for you, read what we have below. Learn the common signs of degenerative disc disease, what it is, and how to treat it today!
What Is Degenerative Disc Disease?
As the name implies, it’s a condition where the discs along your spinal column degrade. Everyone experiences this kind of degradation as they age. However, not everyone experiences the pain that others do.
The disease affects both parts of the spine. The annulus fibrosus, which is the outer layer of the spine, can tear from stress and wear. When this happens, one can experience numbing pain that often lasts several days.
Your spine’s nucleus pulposus can also leak out of your annulus fibrosus. If it does, the proteins can spread out of the spine and onto the muscles holding the spine. These proteins cause any tissue they come in contact with to swell and become tender, causing immense pain.
Common Cause
There are two chief causes for degenerative disc disease. The first is the drying out of the discs in your spine.
The discs in your spine have water in them that’s been there since your birth. As you grow, the discs dry out and get thinner, causing them to have less padding to cushion shocks. Since discs get the least amount of blood in the body, there’s no way to replenish the water in them.
Stress can also cause injuries that can lead to disc degeneration. It can cause cracks to appear on your spine, as well as soreness and swelling. These can slowly cause the degradation of your spine, contributing to the disease.
Degenerative Disc Disease Symptoms
Now that you know what it is, you must be wondering, “Do I have degenerative disc disease?” If you exhibit any of the symptoms below, it’s time to schedule yourself for a checkup.
Lower Back Pain
About 20% of people experience having acute lower back pain that lasts at least a year. The pain can make it difficult for an individual to bend or twist their bodies around. Lifting anything heavy will also be difficult when you’re experiencing lower back pain.
Sitting or standing can become uncomfortable in extended periods of time. The pain can extend to the neck. You may find it uncomfortable to look down or up, and doing so can even make the back pain worse.
Radicular Pain
Radicular pain is a hot, stabbing pain that radiates from your back and can go all the way to your extremities. These pains are from the nerve roots along your spine. When something pinches the nerves, different areas in your body and your limbs can feel numbness and tingling.
If you feel this pain somewhere along the upper part of your body, you’re experiencing cervical radiculopathy. This mainly affects your shoulders, arms, and your hands. You may find that your reflexes will slow down whenever nerves become compromised.
Pain along the lower part of your body means you have lumbar radiculopathy. You’ll feel immense pain in your hips, the back of your legs, and in your buttocks. Pinched nerves in these areas can incapacitate you, preventing you from moving.
Muscle Spasms
These debilitating pains happen because of the proteins in your nucleus pulposus. As mentioned above, when the proteins leak out of the spine, tissues can swell. When muscles along your spine become exposed to this protein, it can cause spasms to happen.
This is the main source of pain when you’re suffering from degenerative disc disease. A degenerated disc won’t cause any pain, it only becomes too weak that it can’t support your weight. Spasms pull and stretch your muscles in unnatural ways, causing severe pain.
Spinal Weakness
This is the feeling of your spine “giving out” when you’re standing or sitting up. It happens when the nerves across your spine get pinched. When this happens, you feel like your spine can’t support your weight, making you unable to move.
This can even cause the muscles in your leg to become frail. Remember, your spine supports not only your upper body. It’s also connected to your lower body, helping you control your legs.
Weakness in the spine caused by DDD makes it difficult to control your legs. It can even cause foot drop, which makes lifting your feet difficult.
Degenerative Disc Disease Treatment
If you’re suffering from the disease, it’s unfortunate to know that there’s no real cure for it. There are, however, ways for you to treat your condition to stop it from progressing.
You can simply take medication to ease the pain. Some meds like ibuprofen can also help with swelling, which is common with DDD.
You can also opt for physical therapy. Health specialists can instruct you to do specific movements and poses that make your back and neck muscles stronger. It can also make you more flexible, helping support your spine further.
Steroid shots are also an option if you’re experiencing weakness. There are tons of other non-surgical and surgical options for you to choose from. You only need to find a good medical professional to help you decide.
One such professional recently joined Neurosurgery One. Check it out here to learn all about him.
Learn All About Degenerative Disc Disease Today
Degenerative disc disease only gets worse as you suffer from it. Prevent it from becoming too much of a detriment to your life by identifying the key symptoms early. Know all the common signs of degenerative disc disease now and receive treatment today!
Do you want to learn more about the potential warning signs your body is giving you? Check out more of our posts to learn all you can about your body. Know what your body is trying to tell you today!