Help for a Degenerative Disc...

[Michelle L]

This is from the blog of the place where I order some supplements from. Thought it was interesting reading. I clipped the answer segment before they went into the types of supplements that would help, didn't want this to seem like an "ad"

http://xtendlife.squarespace.com/warren_matthews_blog/2007/12/20/help-for-a-degenerative-disc.html

Question: from Sherry

COULD YOU TELL ME OF ANY PRODUCTS TO HELP DEGENERATIVE DISK? COULD IT BE CURED? MY SISTER IS 30 AND FOUND OUT SHE HAS THIS.
Answer: from Joanna (Medical Nutritionist for Xtend-Life)

Degenerative disc disease can have a few degrees of severity depending at what seforum.xxxe it is at.

A healthy disc has a great deal of water in the centre portion. The water content gives the nucleus a spongy quality and allows it to absorb spinal stress.

Loss of water content causes the discs to lose some of their ability to act as cushions. This can lead to stress and tears on the disc. As the nucleus loses its water content, it collapses. Without the cushion effect of the discs, the vertebrae in your spine would not be able to absorb stresses or provide the movement needed to bend and twist. This results in a narrowing of the disc space between the two vertebrae. As this shift occurs, the facet joints (located at the back of the spine) are forced to shift. Shifting changes the way the facet joints work together and can cause problems as well.

First and foremost I would advise dietary changes. Lack of adequate fluid intake is a contributory factor, as the body has to purge fluids from other parts of the body, leading to reduced fluid between joints as well as other parts of the body, as noted above. Pure fluids include pure water/vegetable juices, etc.

Improved diet helps too of course.

One of the major reasons for degenerative back and neck disease is a diet high in refined carbohydrates. The high-carbohydrate diet can causes an increase in the blood insulin level, which triggers an increase in the catabolic hormones, causing the body to literally eat itself. Unfortunately, the spine is the first to suffer when the catabolic hormones scavenge protein from the spine for redirection to the legs and arms as needed. A catabolic metabolic state is brought on by hyperinsulinemia (high blood insulin level) after the excess consumption of carbohydrates in people with insulin resistance.
Prescription drugs cannot prevent bone loss in the presence of the powerful catabolic hormones produced by the body during hyperinsulinemia. Taking drugs that promise to prevent osteoporosis will not work.

 

[Khushbakht]

Interesting. I get an email from an MD ...Dr. Susan Lark, I think....who talked about this recently. She said that the natural process in bones is to throw off the old cells and produce new. When a dr. diagnoses osteoporosis and prescribes meds for it, things actually get worse. The meds interrupt the natural process to not allow the dead/old cells to be thrown off, which in turn stops the production of new, healthy cells. So what happens is the "rebuilding" they see on their next tests is maybe denser bone, but just more dead material rather than any new growth. Because the jaw bone is the fastest at the natural process, it *dies* with the meds after just a few years. After 10 years of these drugs being available, they are seeing many broken jaws in elderly women. She said stay away from the meds and improve the diet and exercise - that is proven to rebuild healthier bone tissue and is obviously needed for the rest of the body, anyway.