AGEING AND DEGENERATIVE CHANGE
As one gets older, the whole spine tends to become stiffen Not only is the total range of movement reduced, but the tissues in the spine are stiffer and change shape less readily, which reduces their shock-absorbing capacity.
To some extent, degenerative change can produce similar effects locally in individual joints. A completely degenerated intervertebral joint – disc, ligaments and joint facets – is stiff, fibrous, and narrow.
Degenerative change can -start in one’s teens, but the likelihood of it increases with age. It differs from the ageing process, however, in that ageing affects the spine as a whole, while degeneration generally begins in a single intervertebral segment. There may be advanced degenerative change in just one site, with apparently normal discs and joints above and below it.
Degenerative change tends to begin much earlier in people who do heavy unskilled manual labour. It can also start early in people who go in for strenuous forms of exercise – but some experienced weight-lifters show no more degenerative change than sedentary workers. It seems that violent exertions and unskilled efforts are most likely to cause minor damage to the cartilage between discs and vertebral bodies, or to the ligaments. If they are repeated often, there is a cumulative effect leading to degeneration, even though at the time each injury felt no worse than a momentary jarring. There is also some evidence that prolonged awkward posture may lead to such damage.
Back pain and degeneration do not invariably go together; they do not necessarily bear any relationship to each other. Plenty of people undergo major degenerative changes in their spine without ever suffering from back pain.
*28\111\2*
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.