Musculoskeletal & Pain
Degenerative Disc Disease
Discs that have lost their cushioning, one slow year at a time.
What is Degenerative Disc Disease?
The discs between your vertebrae naturally lose water content and height as the years go by, and for some people this shows up as persistent back stiffness, reduced flexibility or pain that worsens with prolonged sitting or standing. It's a specific, imaging-confirmed process rather than a catch-all term for back pain, and severity varies enormously between people with similar-looking scans.
How regenerative medicine supports it
We correlate your MRI findings with your actual symptoms, because disc changes on a scan are common even in people with no pain at all, so imaging alone doesn't dictate treatment. MSC therapy and PRP are used to support disc and surrounding tissue quality, with growth factor injections for localised segments, and we recheck function rather than repeat imaging too often. Severely collapsed discs with nerve compression are a surgical conversation, and we'll refer rather than pretend otherwise.
Treatments we would consider
Options discussed for this condition
Listed for orientation only. What is actually prescribed depends on your records.
If the evidence for treating degenerative disc disease this way is thin, we will tell you before you book — and the review is not billed.
Degenerative Disc Disease — Questions Patients Ask
My MRI shows disc degeneration at three levels, is that bad?
Not necessarily — disc changes are extremely common with age and don't always correlate with pain severity. We look at your symptoms alongside the scan, not the scan alone.
Can this regrow my disc?
No, and we won't claim it can. What it can do is support the tissue that remains and reduce inflammation around it, which often meaningfully improves comfort and function.
Is this different from general back pain treatment?
It's more targeted, since we're working from a confirmed structural diagnosis rather than treating symptoms without knowing the cause.
How often will I need scans to track progress?
Rarely — structural change is slow and imaging seldom shifts within a year, so we track how you function instead.
At what point would you say I need surgery instead?
If there's significant nerve compression causing weakness, or pain that isn't responding after a fair trial, we'd say so directly and refer you on.
Reviewed by Bangkok Stem Cell Center Medical Team | Last updated: August 2026
