Healing The Spine

Thought this was a really great photo to explain various ailments of the spine. 

From the top:

Normal Disc
Degenerative Disc
Bulging Disc
Herniated Disc
Thinning Disc
Disc Degeneration with Osteophyte Formation

The spinal disc was described to me as a jelly donut between the vertebrae.

The jelly can bulge in the disc or actually herniate/rupture and spill out pressing painfully against the nerve--that's the scary red that you see!

The disc degeneration and osteophytes are also a pretty frightening looking deterioration of the disc and cartilage.

No wonder
- "31 million Americans experience low back pain at any given time...[and] back pain is the single leading cause of disability."
- And "80 percent of adults experience lower back pain at some point in their lifetimes...[and] leading contributor to missed workdays"  

When we have our health, we don't always realize how incredibly fortunate we are. ;-)

(Credit Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Healing The Spine