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degenerative spine disorders

We all have degenerative changes in our spines; they are there because they are part of the ageing process - and they start appearing from our late teens onwards.

A key feature of the degenerative cascade, described in Back Sufferers' Bible, is that the problem starts off simple but may get worse if it isn't interrupted. As time goes by, the cascade of segmental breakdown becomes steadily more complicated and harder to reverse as each next stage quietly brews under the skin. But even so, the degenerative spinal sequence may be completely painless. 

Getting older does not always mean getting painer!


Simple back problems have a habit if getting more complicated and difficult to reverse, if not stopped


The common affliction of the spine is 'simple back pain' also known as 'non-specific back pain'. It develops as the intervertebral disc - the fibrous pillow between the vertebrae - loses water and stiffens. This can be caused by several factors - not least small-scale injury either across, or through, the length of the spine. Dehydration is also caused by long-term compression of the discs, usually sitting.

Then, one of two things can happen for the problem to get worse: you can develop more serious trouble from the front compartment of the spine as the disc breaks down further. Or, you can develop trouble from the back compartment as strain translates across the spine to the facet joints at the back.

Worse still, you can get pain from both compartments at the same time. Finally, the wholesale destruction of both compartments can cause the vertebrae to slip around, in what is known as 'segmental instability'. 


Download 'Causes of Back Pain' Videos here


The the video package 'Causes of Back pain' you will see Sarah herself explaining in detail the stages in the sequence of breakdown, starting with the pre-pathological condition of a 'stiff spinal segment' (Stage 1) to an 'unstable spinal segment' (Stage 5). 

Read here about Stiff Spinal Segment SSS

Read here about Degenerative Disc Disease or DDD

Read here about Facet Joint Arthropathy FJA

Read here about Spinal Stenosis

Read here about Acute Locked Back ALB

Read here about Prolapsed or 'Slipped' Intervertebral Disc PID

Read here An Interesting Case History of Intervertebral Disc Fenestration

Read here about Unstable Spinal Segment USS