♪ Bob and Brad the two most
famous physical therapists ♪ ♪ On the internet ♪ (claps) – Hi folks, I'm Bob
Schrupp, physical therapist. – Brad Heineck, physical therapist. – We are the most famous
physical therapists on the internet. – In our own opinion, of course, Bob. – Hey, good news. If you're diagnosed with DDD, degenerative disc disease,
you must know this. – Absolutely, Bob. – I'm waiting to hear what
you're going to be saying about this, Brad.
– Bob. – 'Cause, how can that be good news? – Believe me, if you're diagnosed with it, you really want to listen
up 'cause this is good news. But,– – All right, if you're new to our channel, please take a second to subscribe to us.

We provide videos on how to
stay healthy, fit, pain free, and we upload every day, and yes you want to go to our website bobandbrad.com . 'Cause we're always giving something away. Right now we're giving away
the RENPHO Massage Pillow. We're giving away a couple of these. Really nice device or if you have DDD. – [Brad] Right, yeah, it's
good for the back muscles, that's for sure.
– Yeah, for sure. You can also find it on Facebook. If you want a shorter version of us, go to Instagram and Twitter. We have a 60 second version
of our show every day. All right, so what it this DDD, Brad? – Well, Bob, before we
get too far into this. – Disease. – Well, degenerative disc disease, a friend of mine 25 years ago, distinctly remember this, he
said he was diagnosed with it.

He was about 25 years old,
he's a hunter, fisherman, physical job and he was very
concerned he was gonna– – Oh I bet you he thought
his life was over. – Well, he figured by the time he was 40, he was gonna be done with– – Yeah, in a wheelchair,
he probably thought. – And today he's almost retired. He's in the upper 50s like us and he's still working the same job.

He still hunts. He still fishes and he's
planning in retirement, to do the same thing. So, what's the big deal? – Right. – So, how did this occur? So, we're gonna tell you, as a matter of fact, in a sense, I have degenerative disc
disease at one level. – I probably do too. – Right. – I mean–
– Exactly. – So, the first thing, if
you do some research on this, and you look at it, it's a misnomer, Bob. It's really not a disease. It's a condition of natural aging process. – Right, it's just like gray hair and wrinkles on the outside, you're gonna have stuff
going on in the inside. – Exactly, exactly.
– It's deteriorating. – As a matter of fact, there
was a study done on people between the ages of 40 to 59 and one third of those people
had some degree of DDD.

And they had, you know, many
of them had no symptoms– – Right. – Just a matter that the
discs, the fluid in the discs starts to decrease. Well, let's show them. – Yeah, let's show them. – All right, I don't have my pen here. – So, this is absolutely true with that– – I'm gonna use your pen, Liz. (Bob laughs) – [Liz] All right. (Bob and Brad laugh) Okay, so here we've got the spine and you see the discs
between each vertebrae.

They're thick, the vertebrae are thick and now look at this one. The red is just so you can see it better. But this disc is thinner than these, than the rest of them. – [Bob] The water has drained out of it. – Yeah, it comes out over time. – [Bob] Right. – [Brad] I'm not gonna get
into the story of (mumbles) how discs work every day, but the discs slowly decreases in height and that is degenerative disc disease and it happens to pretty
much everyone as you age. – [Bob] Right. – Okay, particularly in
the 50s and 60s and so on. So, the body typically does adjust to it. – Right, the body is
amazing on how it adapts to these issues. – Right. – So–
– And the other part is, both Bob and I have been reading this book by a PHD and he's an
expert in the low back, treating low back pain–
– Yeah, He is, he is the guy.

Stuart McGill
– Yep, Stuart McGill. And what he says, he
states that often times the disease is misdiagnosed, Which I have a feeling may be
what happened to my friend. – Sure. – But, you know, one way
or another, he's doing, you know quite well. – Even if you have it, it may not be that big an issue. And it may not be causing your pain. – Right. – It may be something else and if you, and you may not have it. That's the two issues
we're going to bring up. – So, if you do have it,
which is a good chance you do as you get older and it
is causing your pain, which is very possible. The other good news is it
takes care of itself over time and as you get older things
settle and the body adapts. As a matter of fact, I got
proof of that with my back. I'll show you. Oh, I've still got your pen, Liz. Here's x-rays of my back in 2013.

This might be, I'm gonna try to. Why don't you grab the spine, here. So, this is looking at me from the side. – Which way are you (mumbles) – Facing– – This way.
– Yep. – Okay. So the sacrum is here and
then the vertebrae are here. So, here is the sacrum, I
got it outlined with black so you can see it. The L5 vertebrae, here, and L4, this is also spinal esthesis, but if you look at this disc, it's degenerative to the point where it does not exist at all. – [Bob] It's gone. – [Brad] It's gone.

This disc is about 50% gone. So, these two discs definitely have DDD, they have stenosis here
and spinal esthesis. So, this back is not a healthy back. Again, these are my x-rays from 2013 and at that point, I had these x-rays when my back was pretty painful. I had nothing done with it, with the exception of conservative
treatment, my exercises. – [Bob] Sure. – [Brad] And now seven years later, I'm hunting, I'm fishing– – [Bob] Right. – [Brad] I'm doing triathlons. It's still, I still gotta
watch what I'm doing. – [Bob] Right. – But I'm not– – And you're, this is
an extreme case, here. – Yeah. – It gets to the point where they fuse– – Right. So, if that gives you
any hope, if you are, if you haven't been diagnosed
and you have back pain, you can improve with it. – Yeah, generally, I don't
remember the exact years, but you know the painful
years are like from 20 to 40, 20 to 45 or something like that. And things start to work their way out.

– Right. – Not that you're gonna have pain throughout those entire years, but I'm saying, there's
a good thing to aging. (laughs) – Yeah, the discs actually
start to get more rigid. – Right. – They're not going to
continually degenerate. – They're not going to
bulge on you as much, and they're not goin to
herniate on you as much. – Right, and that's all good news. Other thing is surgery is an exception. There are not people that have surgery as a result of DDD. – Okay, so, if that makes
you feel better as well, what are you gonna do? What are the conservative
treatments that you're gonna do? – So, you're saying, I'm sorry,
I didn't follow you on that. Surgery is not an option? – No, it's an option but
it's not done very often. – All right, right. – It's, yeah, it's the exception. – Yeah.
– Yeah, that was– – It's very rarely done. – Right.

– Okay, great, gotcha. – Thanks for– (Bob mumbles) – 'Cause I'm sure if you
didn't understand it, a lot of our viewers were
thinking the same thing. – So, these are the things that
we try to do with treatment. – Right. And we're not gonna go
into a lot of detail, but the big thing is avoid movements that irritate your back. So, if bending over to lift
things up irritate your back, you're gonna have to change
how you bend, avoid lifting, avoid bending, but– – Well, really, the thing is
learning to do it correctly. – Right. – I mean, 'cause you really want very little movement in the back. All the movement is coming from the hips. – Yep. – When they tell you
to lift with your legs, it's not just lift with your legs, it's also not bend your back. – There you go. – And, you know, we're gonna
have some in depth videos on these coming up.

– Right. – But, you know, if you can learn to lift right without pain, tighten up your stomach. You can knock your pain
levels down to the point that they are gone. – Right, exactly the whole point of this. The other thing is avoid twisting. – Yes. – A lot of twisting and
your body is gonna tell you. If you do movements and it creates pain, your body is telling you– – Everybody, they're yelling
at us right now, Brad. I can here them say right now, well I have to twist sometimes. No, you don't. You just move your hips along with it. So instead of going like this, you go like this. – Right. – You move your entire body. You learn movement patterns. – Sure. – Kind of hard in the car, but that's why they got video cameras. – That's why they got video
cameras in the car, right. – And that's, a lot of times your neck, you can do it– – Sure.
– Not your back. – Yep.
– So.

– So, bending, lifting, all those things, we're gonna have a lot of videos on these types of treatments. – Right. – The next thing is,
if you need a hot pack, if you respond well to a hot pack, we're gonna give you some
information right now. – Yeah, we actually
like Thermotex Infrared, because normal heat just
penetrates a few millimeters. – Skin deep basically. – Yeah, and this
Thermotex or infrared heat actually penetrates 60
millimeters or six centimeters.

– 2.36 inches
– Inches, yep. – According to studies – So, Brad and I use
this on a regular basis. I mean, I use it as preventative. It's really nice as things
are starting to get cold. Because I have this in my chair, I just leave it on. – Right. – I used to turn it off. I leave it on now. – I did turn mine off this morning 'cause I was a little conscience of it. But, yeah, this goes in my
recliner with my lumbar support and then this is on top of it. – It does come with straps.

Are we gonna try this Brad or not? – Sure, well, yeah. – It's under pressure. You want to hold it right there. So, what's nice about this is you can put this on and you can actually work with it 'cause it's got a six foot cord and if you have to go to
the bathroom or something, you just unplug it like this
and come back to it later then. – Right and this works good if
you're at a computer station or if you're working with something where you don't obviously
have to walk more than six feet away. – I honestly think this is
part of your success too, Brad. I mean, when you can, you
can get some deep heat some healing, every night. – Right. – I think it's just gonna
make things a lot better.

– Right. The heat's gonna increase circulation, it's gonna relax the muscles,
allow things to heal. 'Cause, it's not gonna be a fast process, but you can accelerate it. So, and the other thing, and
there are some red flags. – Yep. – You know, if you are having severe pain, particularly if you're having
pain, numbness, tingling going down one of your legs. You need to see the doctor. – Yeah, there are things
we can do, you can try. – Right. – And we'll be going over
that in the future too. It's basically nerve
flossing and you know, when you're having radicular signs. – Right, pain down the leg,
so, we've got more answers, but, again, there's times when you do need to see the doctor. And maybe there are some
things that need to be done by professional help.

– Right, yep, exactly. – Well, remember, Brad and I
can fix just about anything. – Except for– – A broken back. – Oh. – No, a broken heart.
– Broken heart, Bob. Well, we're working on it. I was talking to somebody
today at the Y about it but we didn't get too far. – Did you give them relationship advice? No? – Well, no, he, there was a, we don't want to get into it, Bob. I'm working on it. – All right, thanks..

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