I can’t tell you the number of patients I have seen in near panic because they have been told their joints are deteriorating, or at least that’s what they heard after having X-rays or an MRI. The term “degenerative joint disease” (DJD) is pretty scary, but it shouldn’t be. First, you have to realize that doctors love to name conditions, especially when the name implies something important to the patient. Why do you think they use so much Latin? What DJD really means is that there is some wear and tear of the joints.

I tell my patients DJD is a souvenir of living that we all collect over time. I also tell my patients not to be too concerned about it.

In that “ah-ha” moment when they were told DJD was the cause of their pain, the doctor was probably wrong. In my 34 years of practice, I have seen some of the worst looking DJD spines on film, but as long as the joints were still moving, these people had little or no pain. On the other hand, someone with a perfect looking spine on film, but whose joints are not functioning properly, may be unable to walk. You see, the key is function, not structure, and function is not seen on films or scans.

If you are told that you have DJD, don’t immediately plan that last trip to Disneyland. Take it with a grain of salt and start thinking about how to get moving more. Remember, a properly moving joint is usually a pain-free joint, no matter how it appears on an X-ray.