What problems can be brought on by disk degenerative disease?!

First lets put this in the proper perspective, most if not all adults have a degree of degenerative disc disease. It simply means wear and tear on the discs. This happens as we age and because of the position of our back bones because of walking upright. Now with that being said, there are varying degrees of the disease. Usually when someone gets this diagnoses it's because they are having back pain. What's happening is this, the disc are a soft cushion between your vertebrae, as it wears it with time sometimes the jelly like center of the disc starts leaking. This jelly is very irritating to your nerves. This is wear you get the pain response from. Sometimes through injury the discs come out of place and push on the nerves as well as leak. Most people with degenerative disc disease can feel improvement by the time they are in there 50's, pretty much what happens is the discs run out of jelly. Now this of course happens when there is no disc herniation. With disc herniation the only real relief comes from having the disc removed. Most people with disc degeneration will have pain when bending, lifting, twisting, or generally doing anything that uses your back, but depending on how much degenerstion you have depends on the amount of pain you have. To help keep your back from hurting you could try yoga, take a yoga class, what you are doing is strengthening the muscles of your back so it will take some of the pressure off the backbone. Use heat to relax any spasming muscles. Try to limit lifting heavy items, bending at the waist and if you need to turn, turn your whole body, don't twist at the waist. Try to keep things waist level, for example in the bathroom, put your shampoo on the sink instead of on the bathtub so you don't have to bend down to get it. I hope I was able to help.

Many hours spent online researching all my options before I had a lumbar spinal fusion. I also have degenerative disc disease, I also had 2 herniated discs and I have arthritis in my back. The surgery gave me 2 bone grafts, 2 titanium cages and 6 titanium screws to hold it all in. I'm an expert at dealing with back pain.

That depends on the level of pain and the degrees of the disease. I have it myself and so am in painful every minute. It brings a lot of fatigue. Trying to do normal things like bowling, moving your couch, etc., will bring more intense pain in the areas you irritate in your back or neck.

Some areas of your joints will crumble and other areas will get bone spurs. When either cause pressure on a nerve or a muscle spasm, the pain you can make it impossible to live life normally. Friends and family usually do not understand the degree of discomfort you are in and the need for medication to ease the pain.

As a degenerative disease it will continually get worse. This will increase what you are unable to do on a continual basis making you feel old quicker than other people. I'm sure there is other problems but these are some that have been in my life due to the degenerative process.

Try to appreciate what you have been able to do in your life and the good memories. Try not to feel sorry for yourself and let depression take ahold of you.

Best wishes...

It can prevent a multitude of what are considered every day normal actions. Every thing from bending over to pick up your child to bending over the engine of your car to check the oil. Forget about sports. I just bent over to rinse out my razor once and down I went. I lay on the floor for an hour and a half before I could drag myself down the hall and pull myself up on the couch. My daughter has it so bad that she is in chronic pain and agony. Eventually she is going to be wheelchair bound. It's a horrible debilitating disease.