DEGENERATIVE DISC DISEASE AND THE ATHLETE
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From the book, Prolo Your Sports Pain Away,
Excerpts from Chapter 17, Prolo Your Sports Back Pain Away, contributor Jean-Paul Ouellette, M.D.
Degenerative disc disease (DDD). This is a common form of osteoarthritis in the back. A degenerated disc is one that has lost some water and as a result loses height and flattens. When the disc is of normal height, the ligaments that hold the spine together remain at normal length. As the disc height decreases in degenerative disc disease, the vertebrae move closer together. As a result, like a rubber band that loses tension, the ligaments of the spine become loose. Loose or lax ligaments do not hold the vertebrae in place and as they move, chronic pain results. In athletes, DDD can be seen even at a very early age (late teens or early 20s) as a result of sports injuries that never healed. When, at a young age, an athlete permanently overstretches the ligaments of the low back, the lumbar spine becomes unstable, and excessive movement occurs at that segment of the spine. This results in excessive stress being exerted on the disc. The disc cannot sustain the excessive pressures and, gradually, fissures and tears develop in the outer layer of the disc. The process of degenerative disc disease is thus accelerated, especially if the athlete continues to play. Eventually many or all of the lumbar discs become degenerated. Degeneration of a disc begins as soon as the lumbar ligaments become loose. If not corrected, a vicious cycle is perpetuated and vertebral instability and degeneration will be inevitable.
The cycle starts with ligament injury, which leads to increased stress on the disc, which causes thinning of the disc. This puts more pressure on other discs and increases the degenerative disc disease. This causes instability in the lumbar vertebrae, which increases the stress exerted on the disc. More fissures develop in the outer rim of the disc, worsening the DDD, and the process continues to repeat itself. The worse the degenerative disc disease, the worse the instability, and vice versa.
The solution for the athlete is to receive Prolotherapy as early as possible. Prolotherapy can be used at any point in the above cycle. It can be used immediately after the injury to stimulate a quicker healing, or it can be used after DDD and instability has formed. For the athlete who wants to be competitive, however, the earlier the instability is treated with Prolotherapy, the quicker athletic excellence will occur. By correcting the instability of the lumbar spine at an early stage, Prolotherapy will cause less stress to be imposed on the disc and less degeneration to occur at the disc. The phase where more frequent or even constant low back pain occurs, with its debilitating effect on the life of an athlete, can thus be avoided or halted. It is important to treat loose ligaments early to prevent long-term problems and a premature end of an athlete's career.
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