Degenerative Disc Disease

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Hi, I’m Dr. Jacob Hendendrickson and I’m
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going to explain to you um how you end
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up getting disc bulging and disc
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herniations and then eventually how that
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turns into disc degenerative disc
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disease or degenerative joint disease
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cuz it’s a very similar concept. Now,
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because we stand, we’re standing
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creatures and the spine is in a vertical
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position. Gravity pulls down on us. We
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call this axial compression. And as you
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get older over time, if you’re not
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cognizant of your spinal posture or take
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care of yourself, your spine can start
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to get compressed to the point where you
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start to squish down and lose posture.
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And you see these elderly people like
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that. Now, when that happens, because of
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the compressive forces on the spine,
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things gets get literally squished. So,
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this is a vertebrae, two vertebrae and a
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disc. Here’s your spinal cord and your
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nerves. Boom. When gravity pulls us
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down, squishes us, squish, squish,
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squish. Just like that, the disc gets
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smaller and smaller and smaller to the
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point where it does what? It’ll
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eventually bulge or herniate.
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When we see that here, compression,
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compression, compression, compression,
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extruded disc, bulging disc. Here’s the
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disc from a top down view putting
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pressure onto the nerve. Here’s a side
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view right here. compression disc
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bulges, herniates out, puts pressure on
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your nerve. Now, that’s what ends up
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happening because things get compressed
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over time. And in a prior video, I
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explained how this compressive forces uh
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can happen. Now, as that continues to
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happen, imagine a sponge that’s filled
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with water. And if you took that sponge
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and you just kept compressing it like
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this over time, what happens? The sponge
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starts to dry out at an accelerated
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rate. And as you keep pressing it down
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and the water keeps coming out and the
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sponge continues to dry and dry and dry
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and dry. Well, the compression all the
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way down like this, the sponge dries and
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then it dries in this compressed
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position. It looks like a pancake. It’s
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all dry and crusty. It it doesn’t work
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anymore. And that’s that’s what ends up
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happening to the vertebrae and the
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discs. They continue to get compressed.
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They start to get arthritis because the
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fluid, the lubrication in the area is
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literally being pressed out of it,
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right? and the rest of the body is
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absorbing it. And it gets to this point
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where you have this advanced arthritis
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or degenerative disc disease. You still
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have bulging because what’s left of the
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disc is putting pressure on the nerve.
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As you can see, the nerves are all small
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and dried out as well because now
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they’re being compressed. So, what ends
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up happening, how we get these disc
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bulges and herniations is due to again
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spinal compressive forces
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and uh vertebrae that aren’t functioning
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properly. They’re not moving properly.
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And this squishes us down, dries
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everything out, and then we start to get
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this advanced degeneration. The same
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concept can happen in any joint, in your
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shoulder, in your hip, in your knee, in
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your ankle. These compressive forces
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start to get degenerative joint disease
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cuz we lose what? We start to lose space
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in the joint. So, as chiropractors, our
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job is to decompress your joints, open
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everything up so we get more space, and
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then also move the joints. So they start
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to function better, taking away the pain
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and preventing long-term degenerative
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changes.

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From Crystal Grove Chiropractic

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