With the popularity of computers and the acceleration of the pace of life, cervical spondylosis is like an infectious disease diffusing in front of the computer in the office, and the age of patients is getting younger and younger.
1.How can I know if I have cervical spondylosis?
Typical symptoms: stiffness, numbness and pain in the neck!
Since cervical spondylosis can be such a serious threat to our healthy lives, let’s first get to know this enemy lurking around. Cervical spondylosis, commonly known as cervical spondylolisthesis and cervical spur, is a common bone and joint lesion caused by degenerative changes in the cervical spine, causing deformation and narrowing of the cervical spinal canal or intervertebral foramen, stimulating and compressing the cervical spinal cord, nerve roots and sympathetic nerves, and affecting the blood supply of the vertebral artery and causing a series of symptoms.
If you have any of the following symptoms, I regret to tell you, “You and cervical spondylosis are destined for each other in this life, and she is in love with you.”
(1) Stiffness, discomfort, pain, and inflexibility in the neck
(2) Numbness, pain, and loss of grip strength in the palm of the hand or fingers
(3) Migraine, dizziness, chest tightness, chest pain, and each vertigo attack is related to the rotation of the neck
(4) A series of sympathetic symptoms such as dizziness, blurred vision, numbness in the hands, tinnitus, tachycardia, and pain in the precordial region
In addition to the obvious symptoms mentioned above, there are some other symptoms that are often mistaken for other diseases, which can be called “secret love” and should be paid more attention to.
Occult symptoms
(1) Difficulty in swallowing. According to a foreign medical journal, a 65-year-old man began to feel an itchy, foreign body sensation in his throat, and later felt difficulty in swallowing, with intermittent episodes of lightness and severity, most obvious when turning his head to the left, accompanied by nausea and vomiting. The patient had consulted the gastroenterology department and was suspected of having esophageal cancer, but the gastroscopy was normal. Later, a CT tomography scan showed an osteophyte on the anterior edge of the cervical spine compressing the esophagus.
(2) Hypertension. Cervical spondylosis can cause an increase or decrease in blood pressure, but the former is more common, called cervical hypertension, which is related to the stimulation of sympathetic nerves by bone, and the patient often has typical manifestations such as neck pain, tightness, and numbness in the upper limbs.
(3) Breast pain. It starts to feel pain in one breast or pectoralis major muscle, intermittent vague pain or paroxysmal stabbing pain, most obvious when turning the head to one side, and sometimes the pain is unbearable. If this pain occurs on the left side, it is easily misdiagnosed as angina pectoris, while on the right side, it is easily misdiagnosed as pleurisy, which is actually due to the compression of the nerve roots of the 6th and 7th cervical vertebrae by the hyperplastic bone.
(4) Lower limb paralysis or defecation disorder. Patients have numbness, pain and weakness in the lower limbs, limping, and some have frequent urination, urgent urination, urinary incontinence or incontinence, while most of the symptoms in the neck are mild and easily concealed.
(5) Visual impairment. Cervical spondylosis may also manifest as decreased vision, intermittent blurred vision, distension and pain in one or both eyes, photophobia, lacrimation, narrowing of visual field, and in severe cases, blindness. This visual impairment is related to the vegetative nerve dysfunction caused by cervical spondylosis or to ischemia in the visual center of the brain.
(6) Sudden fall. Often the body loses support and falls suddenly when the head is suddenly twisted during walking. After falling to the ground, the body wakes up and stands up due to the change of neck position, without coma, but mostly accompanied by severe vertigo or headache, nausea, vomiting, sweating and other symptoms. This is caused by the compression of the vertebral artery by the proliferated bone, which is easily misdiagnosed as cerebral arteriosclerosis or cerebellar disorders.
2.Why do you get cervical spondylosis?
Long-term poor posture is the main cause!
Although there are various factors in the development of cervical spondylosis, the following factors play an important role in both its generation and recurrence and need to be given sufficient attention.
(1) Chronic strain injury. This refers to the damage to the neck tissues produced by long-term life. Chronic strain injury without obvious trauma , is easily ignored, which is the most important factor constituting cervical joint degeneration. Incorrect sleep posture, poor posture in reading and watching TV, long-term low work, etc. are very susceptible to cervical spondylosis. The modern urban white-collar workers are busy at their desks, so they forget to move their necks, and their usual form of entertainment is the Internet QQ and play computer games, even in the outdoors, they are also busy with “thumb” movement, long time fixed head-down gazing action has become the white-collar workers to interpret the fashion mode of life, but also quietly changing the neck The tissue structure. In addition, inappropriate physical exercise, such as head and neck overload, so that the neck under greater pressure, will also cause premature degeneration of the neck tissue.
(2) Age. As we age, the wear and tear of human organs increases, and various degenerations of the cervical spine will also occur.
(3) Trauma to the head and neck. Trauma to various parts of the body has an impact on the cervical spine, but the impact of trauma to the head and neck is the greatest, according to statistics, 90% of patients with cervical spondylosis are related to trauma.
(4) Congenital deformity. Various congenital malformations, such as congenital vertebral fusion and skull base depression, are easy to induce the occurrence of cervical spondylosis.
(5) Chronic infection. Mainly pharyngitis, followed by dental caries, periodontitis, otitis media, etc. Inflammation in these areas can stimulate the soft tissues of the neck or cause soft tissue lesions in the neck and occipital area through the lymphatic system.
3.What should I do if I have cervical spondylosis?
Change your lifestyle and strengthen your neck exercise!
Since cervical spondylosis is mostly caused and aggravated by a poor lifestyle, we can prevent and slow down its development by changing our lifestyle. When reading books, watching TV or operating a computer, pay attention to maintaining the correct posture of the head and neck, look at the front, do not shrug your shoulders, and keep the spine straight. As much as possible, sit less and move more, take some time to exercise every day, especially the exercise of shoulder and neck muscles, do more head and arm forward flexion, backward extension and rotation exercises, or often climbing, swimming, etc. Pay attention to the combination of motion and static, stand up and move your limbs and cervical spine every hour or so to eliminate the fatigue of the neck. Pay attention to the warmth of the shoulder and neck, match the diet reasonably, don’t be partial to food, don’t be full and hungry, don’t eat cold and overheated food, quit smoking and alcohol.
For cervical spondylosis caused by chronic strain and aging, stretching the shoulder, neck, upper back and chest muscles, improving muscle flexibility and increasing the mobility of the neck and shoulder can relieve and improve the symptoms of cervical spondylosis.