Degenerative Disc Disease is a diagnosis that may cause extreme disabling low back pain on a daily basis, or it may simply be an incidental finding. Over forty percent of persons over the age of forty have MRI findings of degenerative disk, but do not have symptoms.

If disc degeneration is deemed to be the source of back pain, the best option obviously is to avoid surgery. Seeing as how only 20% of back surgeries are truly successful after two years, what are the best ways to accomplish the successful non-surgical approach.

Here are seven ways:

1) Live With the Pain – Doesn’t sound great but at the end of the day it is a quality of life decision. If a person can avoid painful activities and remain active, able to go to work and interact with family and live happily, then this could in fact be the best option. With the results of spine surgery for DDD having at best a seventy percent success rate it often is a roll of the dice, truly all treatment options should be tried and this may be the last option left.

2) Reduce Your BMI (Body Mass Index) – Overweight equals extra weight on a degenerative disc. It does not take a rocket scientist to know that if the disc is painful from degeneration and the body weight is pushing down on the painful region then extra pressure can easily exacerbate the problem.

3) Quit Smoking – Besides the general health benefits of not smoking including lowering the risk of cancer and avoiding emphysema, avoiding nicotine can help with blood flow. Nicotine is a drug that vasoconstricts, and reduces blood flow which is necessary to bring in healing nutrition and oxygen.

4) Core Stabilization and Lumbar Strengthening – Phoenix Physical therapy can strengthen the muscles surrounding the spine, thereby reducing pressure on the painful degenerative disc.

5) Spinal Decompression Therapy – This is a revolutionary therapy that may dramatically reduce the pain from degenerativ disk disease. Therapy at an Arizona Pain Center with spinal decompression may allow surgery avoidance.

6) Chiropractor Therapy – Treatment with a Scottsdale chiropractor may be very effective decreasing the low back pain from disk problems.

7) Interventional Pain Management – If facet arthritis exists in conjunction, a facet injection at an Arizona Pain Center can help with pain reduction.

There is no magic bullet or gimmicks to surgery avoidance when dealing with degenerative disc disease. The above options may help individually or in combination to allow one to live comfortable and avoid an operation.