Jeff LangmaidFounder, The Evidence Based Chiropractor

Can You Grow Discs?

25 Apr 2026 · 1 min

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In this monologue, Jeff Langmaid summarizes a research study that used spinal imaging to track structural changes over time and linked those changes to clinical outcomes. The study measured spinal alignment (lordosis and forward head posture) and intervertebral disc height, finding that lordosis increased, forward head posture decreased, and disc height grew. Correlation analyses revealed strong direct relationships between posture correction and symptom improvement, and inverse relationships between disc degeneration markers and patient outcomes. The overall message is that structural improvements observed on imaging were closely associated with reductions in pain and disability, highlighting a powerful link between biomechanical changes and clinical relief.

Chapters

The really fascinating part was that they also did imaging. Whether you do imaging or not, separate story in your practice, but they did in this study. So they measured spinal alignment and disc height. They found over time that the lordosis improved, that the forward head posture decreased, that the disc height increased, and that these changes did seem to correlate with reductions in pain and disability. So simply put, as the alignment improved on the imaging, the symptoms also did improve. And as the disc height increased, the pain and disability decreased. That's a pretty powerful relationship. And the researchers in this study, they performed a correlation analysis between several variables and they found pretty strong correlations. So the authors described this relationship as both direct correlations and inverse correlations. So direct correlation was between posture correction and symptom improvement. Inverse correlations were between disc degeneration markers and patient outcomes. So the structural improvements in this study were able to be linked to clinical improvements, which is really, really impactful.