What are the characteristics of “low head syndrome”?

  Its symptoms are so incestuous that it is difficult to immediately diagnose what it is. In fact, it has been found from a large number of patients with neck and shoulder pain that about 60% of them have a history of prolonged head-down study or work. This kind of neck and shoulder pain is neither like typical cervical spondylosis and soft tissue strain of neck and shoulder, nor like specific vertigo, but is often a combination of some symptoms of several diseases, so let’s call it “low head syndrome”, which may become mixed cervical spondylosis when it develops to a certain degree. Most of those who suffer from this disease are white-collar workers and other brain workers. Patients have the following characteristics.  (1) Generally, they have a history of studying, writing and working with their heads in the air for more than 5-10 years, and the age of onset is above 25 years.  (2) The head and neck are continuously in the forward flexion position of 450~600 for at least 3 hours at a time, day after day, year after year, and although the neck is in a long-term fatigue state, they still insist on going to work without taking it seriously.  (3) Usually there may be headache, dizziness, dull head, vertigo, blurred eyes, tinnitus, nausea, sweating, neck and neck and shoulder pain. Some patients have intermittent numbness in the interscapular region, shoulder and upper arm. A small number of patients experience transient dullness and loss of vision. These symptoms are reduced or disappear if head and neck raising and stretching exercises are performed several times. There is no sense of rotation, no hearing loss, no nystagmus, no ataxia; the neck and shoulder pain does not radiate in the direction of nerve travel; there is no urinary and defecation dysfunction.  (4) Posterior occipital, peri-cervical or cervicothoracic junction, bilateral scapular or interscapular area, with limited or widespread pressure pain; a few patients have sensory dullness in these areas, but no head and neck movement disorders.  (5) No lesions on cervical spine and cranial radiographs. To confirm the diagnosis of this disease, it is necessary to exclude on a case-by-case basis: congenital malformations of the cervical spine, moderate to severe degeneration, cervical spondylosis, soft tissue strain of the neck and shoulder, organic lesions of the cervical spine, spinal cord and cranial brain, vertigo (peripheral, central and systemic), hypertension and anemia.  The danger of “low head syndrome” should not be underestimated. In a sense, it has become a long-term low head workers “occupational disease”, the development may be cervical spondylosis, a great impact on learning and work.