Hi i am Dr Ahmed Aly thanks for using HealthcareMagic site , I had gone through your question and understand your concerns .. I hope you feel better soon and don t worry L4-L5 disc degeneration is very common and increases with age , obesity , heavy lifting , vigorous exercises . Try to avoid bad sleeping and sitting postures and maintain physiotherapy , neck stretching , spinal straightening exercises , painkillers like advil tabs when needed , hot gentle massages with topical anti-inflammatory gels , muscle relaxants , vitamin B supplementation will be effective in most of cases . As long as you maintain your physiotherapy your complications will not appear and the need of medications , maintain regular MRI scans on your lumbar vertebrae and follow them up with your neurologist . If you did not follow your doctors instructions further pain and more disc herniation that may affect your normal daily activities and in severe and chronic cases may need further neurological interventions like minor endoscopic interventions or even may need open surgical surgeries like dissectomy or even spinal fixation with rods and plates . Please click and consider a 5 star rating with some positive feedback if the information was helpful. Wish you good health, Any further clarifications feel free to ask.