I had chronic back pain and "knots" for years. Then it became hip pain as well, and my neck always hurts. I finally found a reliable chiropractor, who actually took time to xray me, show me the misalignments in my vertebrae, and explained how that contributed to my pain. He adjusted, gave me exercises, and the back and hip are great. The neck is too damaged from a whiplash accident 20 years ago, plus bone spurs from 80's headbanging, but I know how to manage that pain. I was a skeptic, but one he aligned the vertebrae that were causing problems, I was better.

Disc problems occur like this: Your spine gets out of line from standing, sitting, accidents, life. This compresses the nerves that feed the discs in your spine. The muscles do not get proper "nutrition", and the discs begin to deterioate because they are not getting fed thru the nerves. The fluid dissipates and the disc dries out, leaving bone on bone with no cushion. The nerves then alway stay compressed, i.e. pain. Try it. I swear by it now even though I was afraid....

Good luck....chronic pain sux!