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Question:
What could be the possible causes of degeneration of discs in the whole spine?
Answer:
There is much we don't understand about degenerative disc disease — your question is a good one.
It's thought that the most common cause of degenerative disc disease is aging. As we age, the discs between the bones of the spine lose their elasticity, and small breaks may develop in their tough outer shell. Over time, this degeneration may allow the inner gel of the disc to bulge (herniate), leading to back pain or compressing a nearby nerve or the spinal cord. When the nerves or spinal cord are affected by degenerative disc disease, there may be numbness, tingling and weakness and pain that radiates into the arms and legs.
Besides aging, the major factors contributing to disc degeneration are heredity and trauma. In studies of twins, up to 75 percent of age-related disc degeneration appears to be determined by genetic factors. Prior injury can also cause disc degeneration, although this typically affects the injured area, not the entire spine. There are other, much rarer causes of focal disc degeneration, such as bacterial infection, but aging, heredity and trauma probably account for the vast majority of degenerative disc disease.
That means that other than avoiding injury, most people can do little to prevent disc degeneration. Fortunately, degeneration of the discs often causes no significant problems. Even when back pain is prominent, disc degeneration identified by X-ray or MRI may have nothing to do with the pain.
If you have widespread degenerative disc disease, talk to your doctor about whether your symptoms may be related to disc disease and, even more importantly, what you can do about it. Treatment options for degenerative disc disease include physical therapy and exercise, medications to reduce pain, injected medications near the site of the disc, or surgery. Chiropractic care, acupuncture, and, in some cases, just the passage of time seem to be helpful in many cases.
