Why the ‘crumbling spine’ is a myth

Many people who have back pain arrive at our practice after being told by their doctor that they have ‘wear and tear’ in their spine, or that it’s because it is part of getting older.

Medical professionals tend to use scary words such as ‘crumbling spine’, ‘crushed discs’ or ‘fusing spine’. These terms frighten people and make it sound much worse than the reality…

… that reality being wear and tear, degenerative disc disease, or spondylosis. But what do they mean? Well, surprisingly, they all mean the same thing, and they are mostly age-related. Here is a list of the most common symptoms:

• Discs dry out and shrink – made of about 80% water, as you get older they slowly lose water. This loss of flexibility puts more stress on the annulus (the tough outer wall of your spinal disc)

• This damage creates ‘fissures’ in the annulus, allowing the nucleus (the softer centre of your spinal disc) to move more freely, thus exerting pressure on the outside of the disc where the nerves that transmit pain are located. This results in ‘bulging discs’.

• If you are overweight, these joints are loaded even more strain, as the back of the spine starts to take the weight of your body (this is normally the disc and vertebral body’s job).

• If you smoke then your back will wear out much faster as the discs receive less nutrition from your blood. Blood supply to the disc is poor regardless, so having your blood full of carbon monoxide instead will lead to your discs and any other tissue starved of nutrition

• Disc space gets smaller – due to the loss of water in the discs, the distance between vertebrae begin to collapse which is why we get ‘shorter’ as we age.

• Bone spurs grow – without the discs holding the vertebrae apart, they can rub on each other, causing inflammation, which in turn causes the muscles to tighten and reduces movement at that spinal segment.

• Spinal canal narrows – the stresses of all the above changes causes the ligaments and facet joints to enlarge (hypertrophy) as they try to compensate and spread the load over a larger area. This overgrowth causes the spinal canal to narrow, which, as above, can compress the spinal cord and nerves causing pain

So as you can see, helping our spine to cope takes a multifaceted approach, such as weight loss, a good diet, quitting smoking and performing beneficial exercises to the spine such as swimming, Pilates, or osteopathy.

That said, our spines start to wear out from the 3rd decade. Yes, in our 30s, even if you lead an active lifestyle and are in otherwise good health.

The term ‘wear and tear’ really explains it all. As we get older, the vast majority of us begin to show changes in our spinal structures, leading to a change in how we perform our tasks.

However this does not mean that even though you have wear and tear in their spine it doesn't mean that you cannot have relief from treatment! You don’t have to live with it.

While us osteopaths cannot stop the natural, degenerative process, we can help to improve the function at individual spinal levels. This can be done by articulating joint, or relaxing the muscles by soft tissue massage or using Western acupuncture.

We will then look at how your spine is moving in relation to the hips, pelvis and upper back. Sometimes the cause of back pain is a worn-out hip, and the spine starts hurting because it's having to do the work of the hip joint. Our specialty as osteopaths is to work on the area of pain, but also every area in between.

At Not Just Backs, we commonly see patients who have back pain, who have been told that it is just part of aging, and to simply accept it.

Often this is not the full picture, and can lead to the false assumption that nothing can be done. We find it to be much more productive to take an individualised approach to each case, considering the person’s age, occupation, medical history and more.

This, coupled with a thorough physical examination and the results of the patient’s x-ray/MRI can lead to a much clearer picture of what may be done to reduce the pain and return the person to a normal life. Typically our patients achieve control over their pain through manual treatment, exercise and advice specific to their situation. More often than not, however, patients achieve a full recovery.

In April, we are introducing a 15-minute exercise add-on to your treatment from just £20. Osteopaths are notoriously bad at finding the time to show you your exercises as we spend so much time concentrating on the hands-on approach to making you feel better.

This add-on appointment gives you the time to understand exactly what you are doing and why, plus you’ll receive an email with a specialised video on your exercises for you to refer to as and when you require.

Give us a call now on 01722 512 043 and we’ll get you sorted out in no time.