I would say no. I've had severe osteoarthritis since my late teens and my docs have told me it starts with the joint cartilage drying out due to a failure of the normal flow of fluids through the cartilage. Take the knee for example. The meniscus, a disk similar to what is in between the vertebrae, becomes more fragile and liable to tear when the disk gets dry. They get dry because the normal joint fluid that gets pushed in and out of it while pressure bearing(standing, walking)not only slows flowing through the cartilage but gets more acidic. That's why they have the new stuff like Synvisc to try to restore non-acidic fluid to the joint. They don't know which comes first, the failure to absorb the fluid or the acidic fluid but the end point is a disk of cartilage that dries out and tears.

So it would seem to me that the drying out of vertebral disks must be something similar. There is still fluid and there is still a flow through system to keep the disk soft and pliable. What we drink may help supply all of that but the trouble is when one of the systems within the disk fails. We are not failing, the disk is.

In rheumatoid arthritis, the joint linings put out so much acidic fluid it not only dries out the cartilage but eats away at the bone(got that 5 years ago).

Arthritis(which technically DDD falls under) is about as complicated as they come. Fifty years ago they knew of about 10 rheumatic deaseses. Now we have 100. Fifty years from now it will be 200. The new drugs they are using are amazing and more are coming. My 30 years of lower back disappeared last December after I started the newest RA drug but yet RA isn't supposed to affect the lumbar spine. But my constant facet joint pain went away. Why?

There is a lot to learn about the spine and I think we are just starting.

Hugs to all..............Jenny