Condemned to a life of back pain?

By Kevin Cheung

Do you have recurring pain anywhere on your spine and muscles around the affected joints? If you do, you may have Degenerative Disc Disease. And the bad news? It will only worsen if left untreated.

Degenerative Disc Disease or DDD, is a painful condition that affects many Thais. Approximately 60% of men and 53% of women above the age of 50 suffer from this debilitating condition. As a sufferer of DDD in multiple sections of my spine for the last 20 years, I intimately understand that flare ups can cause levels of pain that can cause sufferers to be unable to walk unaided. It is a level of pain I would not wish on my worst enemy. DDD can occur in any and multiple sections of the spine and causes both neuropathic and musculoskeletal pain, stiffness, and loss of mobility. It occurs when discs between vertebrae in the spine become damaged due to inflammation, injury, or age-related wear and tear. As DDD progresses, it can lead to additional health issues such as sciatica, spinal stenosis, herniated discs, and even nerve damage. When I was 21 years old, I spent 12 hours in the gym every week, I felt young, healthy and alive. I remember so clearly that I was crossing the street and suddenly felt a click in my spine. Within a second, I was unable to even stand up. On a scale of 0 to 10 my pain went from 0 to 20 in a split second. I had absolutely no signs or forewarning that something was amis with my spine at all. I was helped off the street and was diagnosed with DDD two days later. And it has followed me for the last 20 years. I decided not to do surgery, in fact the doctors of an esteemed University Spinal Research Clinic recommended I not do the surgery, suggesting there are less invasive ways to live with it. They gave a very clear reason for this advice: "If I have DDD in my L4/L5 Lumbar Spine, I can do surgery, it will be painful, but the pain could go away. However, if I have DDD in 1 joint, then I am likely to also develop DDD in other joints, so how many of these surgeries am I prepared to go through?"

DDD is a curse, and it comes with a host of other related problems, such as arthritis brought on by repetitive inflammation from flareups, sciatica, nerve issues, sleeplessness and anxiety. Over the last 20 years, I have tried everything under the sun to make the pain better, and know intimately, how to live with DDD. Do I get flare ups? Yes, but the frequency and severity of flareups has reduced greatly. Sometimes, quality of life is more important than the percentage of success of going through surgery. This is the reason TRUE NORTH exists today. As your ally that not only knows, but has intimate experience of what people who live with Pain, Anxiety & Sleeplessness go through.

TRUE NORTH will be at the 2023 Convention of Pharmaceutical Ingredients (CPHI) at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre in Bangkok from July 12th to 14th. Come see us at CPHI and learn about how we can help you manage pain and maintain quality of life!

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