Scarred for Life

I have not done a written blog for quite some time. I hope that some of you have been able to catch my live Facebook segments, The Doctor's Corner. I look forward to continuing this series as a weekly house call, so keep watching for that.

I am not overly upset by much, but one thing that really makes me grit my teeth is when a patient tells me that they have been diagnosed with "degenerative disc disease." This diagnosis is virtually meaningless and I will explain why. Not only is it a useless diagnosis, but it gives patients a very gloomy outlook on their condition. If a person is told their pain is due to "degenerative disc disease" then it should follow the progression of this, getting worse and worse as they age, ultimately leading to disability, agonizing pain, and surgery. The only problem with this is that there is NO EVIDENCE that "degeneration" or "arthritis" or "decay" causes pain! 

Look at this picture, from a study that examined individuals of varying age that had ZERO spinal complaints. No pain, no tingling, nothing. They were examined with MRI and these are the results:

As you can see, 37% of people in their 20s and 52% of people in their 30s (fairly young) had visible evidence of "disc degeneration." Yet none of these people have pain. How then can a person with pain be shown the same exact findings and be told that is the cause of all their problems? Not only that, but why isn't EVERYONE in their 70s and 80s paralyzed and wheelchair bound because of their degeneration? This is just bad doctoring. Of course these findings are not ideal, but they do not cause pain and they are not cause for concern. I see it time and time again and it is SO DIFFICULT to go back and teach a patient that this is wrong when they have held onto this concept for years. Once they do realize that they are not destined to live a life of pain and disability, healing occurs in the majority. Will they have back pain? Of course, everyone does from time to time but they have strategies to deal with it and prevent it.

You have pain in your spine. Do you have degeneration, and disc bulging, and protrusions, and herniation, and everything else? Probably, because chances are that all the people around you have the same findings in their spine. See your chiropractor, get stronger, and have some faith in the power of your own body.

In Health,

Dr. Joel Ardner