What are the discs in between each vertebra of the human body made of?

An intervertebral disc (or intervertebral fibrocartilage) lies between adjacent vertebrae in the vertebral column. Each disc forms a fibrocartilaginous joint (a symphysis), to allow slight movement of the vertebrae, and acts as a ligament to hold the vertebrae together. Their role as shock absorbers in the spine is crucial.

There is one disc between each pair of vertebrae, except for the first cervical segment, the atlas. The atlas is a ring around the roughly cone-shaped extension of the axis (second cervical segment). The axis acts as a post around which the atlas can rotate, allowing the neck to swivel. There are 23 discs in the human spine: 6 in the neck (cervical region), 12 in the middle back (thoracic region), and 5 in the lower back (lumbar region). For example, the disc between the fifth and sixth cervical vertebrae is designated "C5-6".

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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87 Comments

Chris Braun

Bill Coe, still cartilage. The coiled spring action you refer to is due to collagen, which is what cartilage is made of. It's the same thing that makes skin elastic. You probably just Google searched. I'm a senior in Human, Cellular, and Molecular Biology and aced Human A&P.

Bill Coe

WRONG!! None of your answer options are correct. Discs function like coiled springs. The criss-crossing fibers of the annulus pull the vertebral bodies together against the elastic resistance of the gel-filled nucleus. The nucleus acts like a ball-bearing when you move, allowing the vertebral bodies to roll over the incompressible gel. The gel-filled nucleus is composed mostly of fluid. This fluid absorbed during the night as you lie down and is pushed out during the day as you move upright. With age, our discs increasingly lose the ability to reabsorb fluid and become brittle and flatter; this is why we get shorter as we grow older. Also diseases, such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis, cause bone spurs (osteophytes) to grow. Injury and strain can cause discs to bulge or herniate, a condition in which the nucleus is pushed out through the annulus to compress the nerve roots causing back pain.

Dianne Halloran

It is spelled cartilage.

Lydia Coutts

I slipped a disc ten years ago. Woke up, got out of bed, bent down to open a divan drawer and that was it. Unbelievably easy to do. It was just horrific back pain for months (getting out of a chair was the absolute worst), and then came the sciatica, where I lost all feeling in my left leg — apart from when I was standing, and then it hurt so much I couldn’t even have a shower without sitting down. It was only when I was x-rayed a year later that I found out I’d slipped a disc! I just thought I had bad backache...I must be more hardcore than I thought. 😂 A decade later and it still bothers me, alas. The moral of the story: don’t get out of bed and immediately bend over and open a drawer!

Player

People with neck injuries learn all about the 23 discs in the human spine.

Toby

Nearly all the answers come from Wikipedia. It is amazing when they are RIGHT. But I reckon Caroline is closer to right than wrong.

Skarry

Bill Coe, behave yourself

SDL

Wrong. You obviously didn't research your question. At your age, you may suffer from this problem but you know little about it.

tinaloflin

Lydia Coutts, I empathize. I hope you are feeling much better now.

tinaloflin

Chris Braun, So what makes cartilage cartilage??. Why is it translucent?

tinaloflin

Bill Coe, thank you!!! I used to be 5'2" tall. Now I've shrunk to 4'10"😭😭, and have to beg, plead, and tap dance to get items from the top shelf at a grocery store!! Now I know what's to blame for that!! Grr. Old age(I am 68!!) is not for the faint hearted!! Thank you, again!!

Joyce Walton

take my name off this

slburrow

I put down cartilage. But your program wouldn't take it...not fair!

hessjeffery

Not to hard YET !!!

Spencer

This explanation reminds me a a plumber trying to write about music. Very poorly explained and not very scientific or even original. It looks like a cut and paste from an amateur site. Writer should stick with whatever he knows and stop pretending to be an intellect, clearly not..