How running can improve the health of your spine and discs!?

"Oh I couldn't possibly run, I have a back problem!" Sounds plausible doesn't it? As a clinician, I have heard it all too often too. Before you all think it, this isn't another blog about how exercise is good for you and how maintaining movement can help with non-specific low back pain. This takes exercising for the low back to a whole new level! Some new research by Belavy et al (2017). Have identified something truly amazing. They have established that running can improve the height and integrity of your inter-vertebral discs! What is the significance of this? People who suffer from disc related problems, suffer typically either: disc degeneration or disc protrusion:

Disc degeneration Or: disc height loss

Exactly what it says on the tin. Discs, in simple terms have a lot of water content. If this water content becomes diminished, typically with ageing, our inter-vertebral discs lose some of their height, therefore the vertebrae come closer together, and can impinge on a nerve, causing the sufferer nerve pain. This can cause pain in later life as part of age related changes.

Disc protrusion

Or: herniated disc

Or: disc extrusion To most, this is a slipped disc. The disc doesn't slip out of place, it is probably more accurate to call it a bulge. But that is still a scary word. This is again, where the disc loses some of it's structural integrity and begins pushing or pinching on one of your nerves, causing the sufferer nerve pain.

Experience and evidence tell us that these types of changes occur in the very low back. (L4/5 or L5/S1 for those who like the facts)

It is already well established that running can improve your bone density. People who suffer osteoporosis or osteopenia, both conditions that affect the density of your bones, are encouraged to conduct impact related exercise, such as running as the forces and loads placed on the bones, allow integrity and density to improve. What Belavy et al (2017) have identified in their study is, the same can happen to your inter-vertebral discs! By undergoing the same forces and loads, inter-vertebral discs respond by making themselves thicker! (Disc hypertrophy). This also follows the principles of when people have a fracture. The body responds by not only repairing itself, but my making that sight thicker and stronger to reduce the risk of further injury.

Is there a specific style of running I need to perform to benefit from this? Yes! To gain the best results from inter-vertebral disc height growth, their study identified slow running or fast walking was the most effective. Those who fall into fast running or high-impact jumping were not considered as beneficial. Does distance matter too? Yes! Again, not only cadence is importance but distance is too. The researchers identified that long distance runners showed the greatest gains in disc height. Yet there is No significant difference between pace and distance. In other words, no one better way will increase your disc heights. Will it make me taller?

No! The study also identified that the disc height has what we term as a ceiling. In other words, it can only gain so much height. In conclusion, before you write yourself off on the scrap heap as being unable to exercise due to low back pain, consider how good for you exercise, particularly running is. Remember a time when running was considered bad for your health?... Original article: Belavy et al. (2017). Running exercise strengthens the intervertebral disc. Scientific Reports. 7:45975 available on request.