Degeneration: How worried should you be?
Hello!
I get asked all the time by people who come in for the evaluation, “ I had these X-rays and MRI done, and they tell me that they found degeneration. How worried should I be?”
This kind of problem is found all the time when older people with neck or back pain get x -rays and scans to determine the cause of their pain.
Let us look at what the facts say.
In the 90’s there was a study done where they did an MRI scan on 100 people without back pain and 25 with back pain.
They then had 2 radiologists, specialist doctors, look at the scans to see what problems they could find.
52% of the 125 MRIs has a disc bulge at least 1 level in the lumbar spine (lower back).
27% had a protrusion of the disc (a more severe kind of disc bulge).
38% had an abnormality of more than 1 Disc.
14% of the MRIs had degeneration of the facet joints of the lumbar spine (the joints between the vertebrae of the spine).
All of these types of findings are degeneration. Just different types.
The researchers concluded that” Given the high prevalence of these findings and that of back pain, the discovery by MRI of bulges or protrusions in people with back pain may frequently be coincidental”.
So, what this should tell you is that degeneration is a common finding of an MRI, the older you get the more common they become.
Secondly, that degeneration of the spine found on an MRI does not mean that degeneration is the cause of the pain you feel.
That means to me that the problems seen on MRI may have been there all along. Are not causing you any pain and may have nothing to do with what is causing your back or neck pain.
Lastly, how worried should you be?
Not very. Degeneration is a natural part of ageing and isn’t, by itself not the cause of pain for most people.
What should you do? You have pain, it is not going away and now degeneration in your spine could have nothing to do with the cause of your pain. What’s the next step?
What you really need to do is go to a professional that can look at the entire problem, find out what is going on and even if degeneration of the spine is playing any role in the problem at all.
Professionals like us perhaps?
Jason
