The term “degenerative disc disease” (DDD) may sound horrifying and might be the last thing you want to hear out of your doctor’s mouth when you’re receiving a diagnosis for your back or neck pain. While DDD can cause back or neck discomfort of varying intensities, it’s important to remember that degenerative disc disease isn’t actually a disease.

DDD is a degenerative spine condition that is marked by the deterioration of the intervertebral discs in your spine. Everyone middle aged and older will exhibit some level of disc degeneration in diagnostic images, but symptomatic degenerative disc disease tends to affect younger individuals and is often characterized by accelerated deterioration, versus the deterioration caused by normal wear and tear. Disc degeneration typically results from a loss of water content and the reduced ability of a disc to absorb nutrients, putting it in danger of collapsing, bulging, or rupturing. While not all collapsing, bulging, or herniated discs are symptomatic, disc material that comes into contact with the spinal cord or a nerve root in the spine can lead to neurological symptoms, such as discogenic pain, and radiating pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness that affects the arms or legs.

Disc Health and Nutrition

So, why is nutrition a key aspect of maintaining healthy intervertebral discs and a healthy spine? It’s important to note that discs are avascular, which means they do not have their own blood supply like other soft tissues in the body. They have to rely on the thin, cartilaginous end plates that line vertebral bodies to pull nutrients (oxygen, glucose, and amino acids) from the nearby bone’s blood supply and diffuse them into a disc’s cells.

When you fail to eat foods that are high in nutrients, you could not only be affecting your overall health, but also the health of your spine. When your spine does not have the nutrients it needs to remain strong and repair itself from everyday stress, the process of degeneration begins. Once degenerative changes set in, you can’t always turn back the hands of time, and this is especially true for intervertebral discs – a disc cannot repair itself or regenerate like some other tissues in the body, largely because of its lack of blood supply.

Other Contributing Factors

Along with inadequate nutrition, other poor lifestyle habits like heavy alcohol consumption, smoking, and lack of exercise can all contribute to the development of degenerative disc disease. In addition to being poisonous to many tissues in the body, alcohol is a diuretic and causes the body to lose more fluids that it can gain back, or in other words, dehydrates the body. This can affect the discs because they consist largely of water, and like the rest of the body, need water to survive.

The chemicals and toxins (nicotine, carbon monoxide, formaldehyde, etc.) introduced into the body by smoking cigarettes can seriously affect your body’s blood circulation. This means that your discs, which already have to work hard to pull nutrients from a vertebral end plate’s blood supply, will have an even more difficult time obtaining nutrients.

A sedentary lifestyle is another factor. Of course, you know that exercising can help you stay strong and limber, lose excess pounds, and maintain a healthy body weight. But did you know that when you walk, stretch, jog, or perform other types of exercise, the movement not only increases your blood circulation, but also helps to physically “pump” (alternately compress and decompress) your discs? Pumping the discs can facilitate nutrient absorption and the removal of cellular waste.

What You Can Do

While there is no specific way to completely avoid the onset of degenerative disc disease, particularly if genetics are at play, you can take an active role in choosing healthier food options and leading a healthier lifestyle. To nourish the intervertebral discs, bones, and other components of your spine, and your body as a whole, you should eat a healthy, well-balanced diet rich in calcium, vitamins, iron, and magnesium. Also, be sure to exercise regularly, avoid or limit alcohol, and quit smoking, all of which will help you maintain a healthy spine.

Patrick Foote is the Director of eBusiness at Laser Spine Institute, the leader in endoscopic spine surgery. Laser Spine Institute specializes in safe and effective outpatient procedures for the treatment of degenerative disc disease and several other spinal conditions.

Patrick Foote is the Director of eBusiness at Laser Spine Institute. Laser Spine Institute specializes in safe and effective outpatient procedures for the treatment of degenerative disc disease and other spinal conditions. http://www.laserspineinstitute.com/back_problems/degenerative_disc_disease/

Author Bio: Patrick Foote is the Director of eBusiness at Laser Spine Institute, the leader in endoscopic spine surgery. Laser Spine Institute specializes in safe and effective outpatient procedures for the treatment of degenerative disc disease and several other spinal conditions.

Category: Wellness, Fitness and Diet
Keywords: degenerative disc disease