A new qualitative condition "illness" arises when its quantitative state attains a certain level (appearance of degenerative spinal changes). The qualitative verge is conventional, dynamic. The changes in the spinal defensive mechanisms shown by nervous system lesions and circulatory disorders may be regarded as its verge. Long-term remissions, appearing in a reverse transition of the qualitative verge may be considered as a clinical recovery in stabilization or even eventual progress of degenerative spinal changes. It is inadmissable to identify spinal degenerative processes with diseases produced by them. Varied and phasic clinical symptomatology appearance of long-term remissions, availability of the most informative methods of study for each phase, the effectiveness of therapeutic approaches and preventive measures, as well as the interests of differential diagnosis permit to consider the clinical manifestations of separate stages in the degenerative process as specific nozological forms regardless of their common vertebrogenic origin. The formulation of a clinical diagnosis depends to a large extent upon the generally acknowledged classification of the nervous system.