Degenerative Disc Disease: What It Means and What You Can Do

Medically reviewed by Dr. Drew Voelsch, DC — Palmer College of Chiropractic graduate, CSCS.

Degenerative disc disease is one of the most misunderstood phrases in all of spine care — starting with the word “disease.” It is not really a disease at all. It is the name for the normal, gradual wear that discs undergo over time, which in some people produces pain and stiffness and in others produces nothing at all. If those words showed up on your MRI or came from your doctor, take a breath: understanding what it actually means is the first step to doing something about it.

What degenerative disc disease really is

Your spinal discs are the soft, shock-absorbing cushions between the vertebrae. They are mostly water, and over the years they naturally lose some of that hydration and height. As a disc dries out — a process you may also see described as disc desiccation — it becomes less flexible and less able to absorb load. That is degenerative disc disease in a sentence: discs that have worn and dried with time.

Here is the reassuring part: plenty of people have degenerated discs on imaging and feel perfectly fine. The wear itself is not the enemy. The problem is when that wear changes how your spine carries load and starts irritating nearby joints and nerves.

Symptoms — and why they come and go

When degenerative discs do cause trouble, the pain is often centered in the low back or neck and tends to flare with certain positions. Many people report that it is worse with sitting, bending, or twisting, and better with walking or changing positions frequently. It can also refer pain into the hips, buttocks, or legs — overlapping with sciatica — or into the arms when it is in the neck. The classic pattern is good days and bad days rather than constant pain.

What makes it worse: alignment and load

Discs do not wear evenly by accident. When the spine loses its normal curves — from years of poor posture, an old injury, or forward head posture — the load stops distributing evenly across the disc and concentrates on one area. That uneven, concentrated pressure accelerates the wear and drives the irritation. In other words, degeneration is not just about age; it is about how your spine has been loaded for years.

This is exactly why a “wait and see” or “just take something for the pain” approach so often disappoints. It does nothing about the mechanics that are wearing the disc down.

Why we measure first

At Forza Chiropractic we do not guess at the state of your discs. We use digital X-ray to see the actual disc height, spacing, and spinal alignment, and AI postural analysis to understand how your posture is loading those discs. That gives us a precise map of where the wear is, what is driving it, and an objective baseline to measure your progress against.

Measuring also tells us honestly what is realistic. We cannot make a worn disc young again — but we can very often change the alignment and load that are irritating it, which is where the pain relief comes from.

How we approach degenerative discs

Our care is built on Chiropractic BioPhysics (CBP), which focuses on restoring your spine’s normal structure so load spreads evenly across the discs instead of grinding on one worn spot. A plan may combine specific adjustments, corrective traction to restore the natural curve, and targeted exercises — and where appropriate, gentle decompression-style traction to offload an irritated disc. The aim is not to chase the ache but to correct the mechanics behind it.

The takeaway

Degenerative disc disease is not a sentence to a life of back pain, and it is not something you simply have to live with. It is wear that is being made worse by how your spine is aligned and loaded — and that is something a measured, correction-focused plan can address. The first step is finding out exactly what your spine looks like.

Disc wear can also lead to a bulging disc, where a weak spot pushes outward.

Advanced disc degeneration is also a common contributor to spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spaces around the nerves.

Told you have degenerative disc disease? Find out what your spine actually shows — and what can be done about the load wearing your discs down. Forza Chiropractic serves Arlington Heights and the surrounding northwest suburbs.

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