5 Warning Signs of Degenerative Disc Disease

Spinal discs are rubbery, pillow-like tissues that sit between your vertebrae, keeping them separated from one another and allowing a great deal of comfortable flexibility and movement in your spine. When you’re young, the inside of your discs — the nucleus pulposus — is moist, juicy, and full of proteins. The harder outside is flexible, resilient, and firm.

As you age, your discs begin to lose moisture and volume, much as your skin and other organs do. Unlike your other tissues, however, vertebral discs don’t have much of a blood supply and can’t repair or regenerate damaged cells. 

Instead, the discs begin to tear and collapse in a process known as degenerative disc disease (DDD), sometimes referred to as arthritis of the back. 

At Addison Pain + Regenerative Medicine in Addison, Texas, our skilled and knowledgeable osteopath, Dr. John East, diagnoses and treats degenerated discs. He determines which discs cause your pain or other symptoms and devises a customized treatment plan. 

Do you have degenerative disc disease? The following are five signs that you might.

1. Sitting feels worse than standing

When you want to take a load off your feet, your back protests. Although you may think standing would put a great deal of stress on your back, it’s nothing compared to sitting.

Your discs have three times more load on them when you sit, compared with standing. If your back pain worsens when you sit, you may have DDD.

2. Standing’s not so cool, either

Even though standing exerts less of a load on your back than sitting, you might find you can’t tolerate an upright position for long, either. Walking, in contrast, alleviates your pain. 

Counterintuitively, you may even feel better when you run, compared to sitting or standing. While staying active is always good and improves your health in many ways, if you're only pain-free when you’re in motion or lying down, DDD may be the reason.

3. Your legs or arms fall asleep or get numb

When your discs degenerate, some of the proteins in the center may leak out, irritating adjacent nerves. Degenerated discs are also liable to slip out of place, directly pressuring and inflaming nerves.

The result may be that your arms and legs frequently feel like they’re falling asleep. You may get pins-and-needles sensations. Your limbs may also sometimes feel completely numb.

4. Your legs or feet “droop” or feel weak

You might notice that one of your legs or feet feels heavy or drags. Or you may experience this as weakness in your legs, which has nothing to do with how much you exerted yourself recently.

Discs that are out of place or leaking can affect nerves that send signals to your muscles. Leg or foot weakness or heaviness could be a result of DDD.

5. You don’t want to bend down or lift up

Youthful spines are juicy and bouncy, so you can twist, bend, and rotate without pain or discomfort. As you age and your discs grow harder and thinner, your range of motion decreases.

You may find that it hurts to bend over. You may also have difficulty picking up and lifting heavy objects without causing back pain.

What to do if you think you have DDD

While you can’t yet reverse DDD, you can adopt lifestyle changes that may preserve the health of your discs, alleviate pain, and increase your range of motion. Some options include:

• Chiropractic care
• Physical therapy
• Avoiding pro-inflammatory foods
• Staying hydrated
• Quitting smoking
• Modifying activities

We may also administer various therapies for the specific goal of pain relief. Choices include:

• Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs)
• Epidural steroid injections
• Facet joint injections
• Radiofrequency nerve ablation
• Nerve blocks
• Spinal cord stimulation (SCS)

In addition, you may benefit from regenerative therapies, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections. We create the PRP serum with blood drawn from your arm. Your blood is then processed in a sterilized centrifuge that separates healing platelets from other components.

Doctors have used PRP for everything from athletic injuries to anti-aging facial treatments. The PRP serum contains growth factors and proteins that stimulate your body’s own healing mechanisms. 

Some patients find that PRP helps alleviate their pain. Research is ongoing as to whether the serum can actually stimulate your body to repair some of the damage in your discs.

Do you suspect that your back and leg symptoms could be due to DDD? Schedule an evaluation by calling our office at 972-380-0000 today or requesting an appointment online anytime.