Aaron,
I do have a little more red wine than usual, to help the scientific research.
I suspect that a comprehensive and disciplined multi modality approach would be needed to slow/halt/reverse early disc degeneration. A disc without full thickness tears might also be needed, and a youngish age would also help.
This current trial is hoping to reverse early lumbar disc degeneration by a single injection.
Degenerative Disc Disease Clinical Trial: A Multicenter, Randomized, Double-blind, Placebo Controlled, Clinical Trial to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability and Preliminary Effectiveness of Single Administration Intradiscal rhGDF-5 for the Treatment of
And this recent study claims non-surgical spinal decompression reduces back pain and increases disc height, which would be one ingredient to any regeneration. I think the decompression might work best before a person went to sleep so that it wasn't followed by loading up the disc again and maybe undoing any benefit.
BioMed Central | Full text | Restoration of disc height through non-invasive spinal decompression is associated with decreased discogenic low back pain: a retrospective cohort study