Back pain due to fissured disks

It has been well documented that a fissure in the disks between vertebrae allows interstitial fluid to come in contact with the layer within the disk called the nucleus pulposis. In turn, this releases a substance called Tumor Necrosis Factor Alpha which is highly inflammatory.

So some back pain (and even swelling) can be caused simply by having a fissured disk.

This fact is integrated into the story Rome's Revolution in several ways.

First, almost all of the frozen occupants of the Arks wake up and suffer from extreme back pain due to this condition.

Second, OMCOM creates a special pill which not only restores Rei's back to a condition appropriate for someone his age, it also gives him some abilities (sonar vision, "cell-phone" in the head, and more). OMCOM later creates a second, less powerful version of the pill which simply fixes up the back pain and this is the pill that is given to the majority of the colonists.

The pill is mentioned again in the sequel to The Ark Lords called Rome's Evolution. One unexpected benefit is that pill prevents the normal Vuduri genotype as expressing itself as the Onsira phenotype. If this pill would become available to all Vuduri, the Onsiras would eventually be eliminated forever.