There are a of myriad things for parents to consider as their kids reach adolescence. Alongside the sentimentality of how their childhood vanished so quickly, parents now have to consider social and internet safety, raging hormones, the elastic issue of independence and much more. One issue seems to disappear in the flurry of things that make adolescence such a juggernaut.
It’s the issue of spine care. While degenerative disc disease used to be something that only truly emerged later in life, it seems to be a concern that is increasingly observed in the emerging adulthood population – that is, those who are coming out of their teens and experiencing back pain in their early to mid-twenties. In exploring this issue, a new study has been released looking at the intervertebral discs of a group of healthy children and adolescents.
It was a longitudinal study, measuring the characteristics of their lumbar discs via MRIs taken when they were aged 8, 11 and 18. It was a lengthy, but incredibly worthy, course of investigation, given previous studies on the issue of disc degeneration (DD) in adolescents and the increasing prevalence of DD in this age group. The big question, of course, is why. Here’s the information that researchers had coming into the study:
- One study linked height and DD, showing that adolescents with increased height had an increased prevalence of DD.
- Another showed that obesity increased the incidence of DD.
- A third study showed that the growth spurt at puberty increased DD
- Finally, a study of adults with low back pain at age 34 showed significantly more DD at age 18 compared with their asymptomatic counterparts.
This information created a picture of the impact of height, obesity and growth patterns. But what was the morphology of those lumbar discs at age 11 and 18, and how did growth affect them? The study began with 94 eight-year-olds in 1994. MRI scans were taken at ages 8, 11 and 18. Accompanying questionnaires were completed at all ages, plus age 34, in order to get a picture of Disc Degeneration without specific trauma. Clinical examinations were conducted at all age points.
The study found that body surface area was the greatest predictor, with 76% of participants in the highest tertile experiencing low back pain. However, this wasn’t the only measurement that was found to have an association: body mass index, standing height, sitting height and weight all factored in. For every 10% increase in Body Surface area, Body mass index, height, sitting height and weight, there was a statistically significant increase in Disc Degeneration.
What does this mean?
While the key takeaway from this study was that the pubertal growth spurt and measures related to body weight were the greatest predictors of DD, we need to ask a further question: we can’t do anything about growth spurts or height, so what do we do?
The first solution is that of maintaining a healthy body weight. But the second solution, which absolutely lies outside of the studies recommendations, is that the chiropractors role in adolescence may indeed be more important than we thought. This was not part of the study, and further research is needed to confirm the hypothesis – but on a common sense level, if a chiropractor can care for the spine and nervous system, and act as a guide for healthy living, then surely this can only benefit the developing adolescent spine.
References:
Lund, T., Ristolainen, L., Kautianene, H., Lohman, M., and Schlenzka, D., (2025). Bodily growth and the intervertebral disc: a longitudinal MRI study in healthy adolescents. The Spine Journal. Vol 25, Is. 2. Feb 2025. Pages 317-323 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1529943024010350
