Many people find a bone spur in the cervical spine when they take an X-ray during the usual health checkup and mistakenly believe that they have cervical spondylosis, but in fact, a bone spur in the cervical spine is not equal to cervical spondylosis. Only cervical disc degeneration and its secondary intervertebral joint degeneration resulting in damage to the surrounding important tissues (spinal cord, nerve roots, sympathetic nerve and vertebral artery) and the presentation of corresponding clinical symptoms can be called cervical spondylosis. The clinical symptoms of cervical spondylosis are very complicated, mainly including neck and back pain, upper limb weakness, finger numbness, lower limb weakness, walking difficulties, dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
In severe cases, it causes the following seven types of hazards.
1, swallowing disorder when swallowing with obstruction, foreign body feeling in the esophagus, a few people have nausea, vomiting, hoarse voice, dry cough, chest tightness and other symptoms. This is caused by direct compression of the posterior wall of the esophagus by the anterior edge of the cervical spine and esophageal stenosis, or it may be caused by irritation of the soft tissues around the esophagus due to excessive formation of bone spurs.
2. Visual impairment is manifested as loss of vision, eye distention, photophobia, lacrimation, unequal pupil size, and even reduced visual field and sharp loss of vision, and blindness may occur in individual patients. This is related to the ischemic lesion of the visual center of the occipital lobe of the brain caused by the autonomic nerve disorder and insufficient blood supply of the vertebrobasilar artery due to cervical spondylosis.
3. Cervical heart syndrome manifests as pain in the precordial region, chest tightness, arrhythmias (such as premature beats) and ST-segment changes in the electrocardiogram, and is easily misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease. This is caused by the stimulation and compression of the nerve roots in the back of the neck by the cervical spurs.
4, hypertension cervical spondylosis can cause an increase or decrease in blood pressure, of which elevated blood pressure is the most common, called “cervical hypertension”. Since cervical spondylosis and hypertension are both common diseases among middle-aged and elderly people, they often coexist.
5. Chest pain manifests as a slow onset of intractable unilateral pain in the pectoralis major muscle and breast, with pressure pain in the pectoralis major muscle during examination. This is related to the compression of cervical 6 and 7 nerve roots by the cervical spine spurs.
6, early manifestation of lower limb paralysis is lower limb numbness, pain, limp, some patients have a feeling like stepping on cotton when walking, individual patients may also be accompanied by defecation and urination disorders, such as frequent urination, urgent urination, poor urination or incontinence. This is because the lateral bundle of the vertebral body is stimulated or compressed by the cervical spur, resulting in motor and sensory impairment of the lower limbs.
7. Sudden collapse occurs when the body loses support and collapses suddenly while standing or walking, and the patient can wake up soon after collapsing, without any impairment of consciousness. Such patients can be accompanied by dizziness, nausea, vomiting, sweating and other symptoms of plant nerve dysfunction. This is due to the cervical spine hyperplastic changes compressing the vertebral artery causing the basilar artery blood supply disorder, resulting in a temporary cerebral blood supply deficiency.
With preventive measures in place, the vast majority of patients with cervical spondylosis can be restored to health through conservative treatment.
1.Read books about cervical spondylosis and master the prevention and treatment of the disease by scientific means.
2.Keep optimistic spirit, establish the idea of fighting hard against the disease, cooperate with the doctor’s treatment, and reduce recurrence.
3.Strengthen the exercise of neck and shoulder muscles, do forward flexion, backward extension and rotation of head and upper limbs in between or after work, which can not only relieve fatigue, but also make the muscles developed and toughness enhanced, so as to facilitate the stability of the spine of the neck section and enhance the ability of the neck and shoulder to comply with sudden changes in the neck.
4, avoid the bad habit of high pillow sleep, high pillow makes the head forward flexion, there is a possibility of accelerating the cervical degeneration.
5, pay attention to the neck and shoulder to keep warm, avoid head and neck weight, avoid excessive fatigue, do not doze off when sitting in a car.
6, early, thorough treatment of neck, shoulder, back soft tissue strain, to prevent its development into cervical spondylosis.
7, labor or walking to prevent flash, contusion.
8.Long-term ambulatory workers should change their head position regularly and do the exercise of neck and shoulder muscles on time.
9, pay attention to the correct posture of the head, neck, shoulders and back, do not shrug your shoulders, talk, read books to look at the front. To keep the spine upright.
10, the foot point is beneficial to the treatment of the root of the thumbs of both feet, the first section of the medial side of the foot point of the cervical reflex zone. Daily pressure on this part of the hand, the cervical spine disease has a certain effect.