There are many causes of spinal damage or instability, which can be broadly classified into primary, predisposing and secondary factors.
I. Primary factors
1, peri-vertebral soft tissue acute injury sequelae
The spine is the axis of human weight-bearing and movement, connecting the vertebrae and coordinating the movement of soft tissues (including muscles, ligaments, joint capsule, fascia, intervertebral discs, etc.) susceptible to acute sprains and contusions. Its common causes from the different injuries caused to analyze, can be divided into direct external force injury and indirect external force injury.
2, chronic strain injury
Chronic strain injury is also known as cumulative injury. Human soft tissues, especially muscles, fascia, etc. in the daily work or life is often imperceptible pulling stimulation, such as often bending work will often make the deep lumbar muscles and fascia and other skeletal attachments by the results of such stimulation, easy to produce lumbar or lumbosacral soft tissue damage, such as often low head work also often make the occipital neck, neck, back, back of the scapula and other parts of the muscles and fascia and other skeletal attachments Place by the results of such stimulation, easy to produce head, neck, back and shoulder soft tissue damage, both will cause primary pain
3.Disease injury
Disease soft tissue injury can be divided into two kinds of disease injury and surgical injury.
4.Intervertebral disc degeneration or herniation
The human intervertebral disc is a special kind of connective tissue. The intervertebral disc is composed of fibrous ring, cartilage disc and nucleus pulposus. It has three main chemical components are proteoglycan complexes, collagen fibers and elastin. The disc often degenerates or herniates at different ages and under the action of certain triggers, when these biochemical components are significantly altered in type and quantity. Recent studies have shown that degenerative changes are already present in the intervertebral discs at the age of 20, and some between the ages of 20 and 30 have significant wear and tear and fissures, which means that the basis for disc herniation exists during this period. The water content of the intervertebral disc at birth is about 80% in the annulus fibrosus and 90% in the nucleus pulposus, and drops to about 79% in the annulus fibrosus and 80% in the nucleus pulposus by the age of 18, and then to 65-78% at the age of 35. As a result of dehydration, the body becomes shorter in adulthood due to narrowing of the intervertebral disc.
5.Vertebral degeneration or osteophytes
After spinal instability, the mobility increases. Muscle spasm can occur on the injured side (paravertebral) after soft tissue injury, and muscle spasm can make the joint synovial joint, hook vertebral joint or vertebral body edge of the ligament, tendon attachment point and periosteum, etc. suffer from unbalanced force pulling, thus causing injury, making the attachment of bone joint congestion, edema, exudation, etc., and over time, it becomes osteophytes (bone spur, bone lip, bone crest) by mechanization or further ossification.
6.Congenital deformity
Vertebral deformities are extremely common clinically, especially in the lumbosacral area more than other parts, all due to developmental process disorders.
7.Inflammatory disease
It mainly refers to acute and chronic infection of the trunk part. This infection can stimulate the adjacent muscles, ligaments and joint capsules, making them congested and relaxed, thus causing the intrinsic and extrinsic stability of the spine to decrease, and coupled with the role of certain triggers, it may cause the misalignment of the spine. For example, the vast majority of spontaneous 1st and 2nd cervical subluxations in children are mostly associated with inflammation of the pharynx and neck. Inflammatory changes in the digestive and respiratory systems and in the pelvis and viscera can also affect the thoracic, cervical, and lumbosacral spine, reducing their stability and causing pain and discomfort in the cervical and lumbosacral regions, mainly caused by inflammatory vertebral segmental misalignments. The joint capsule and its surrounding ligaments are congested and relaxed, and bone decalcification can also occur, so that the stability of the cervical spine is impaired, and under certain causative conditions, misalignment can also occur.
8.Ankylosing spondylitis
Ankylosing spondylitis is generally considered to be an autoimmune disease. Immunoreactive inflammation first invades the synovial membrane and ligaments of the intervertebral joints. The affected synovial membrane is congested, edematous, and infiltrated by a large number of monocytes, plasma cells, and lymphocytes. The infiltrated capillaries and fibers proliferate and form granulations, which in turn lead to synovial thickening and villi formation, eventually causing mechanization and even calcification of the joint capsule and ligaments, resulting in the formation of intervertebral bone bridges and a bamboo-like spine.
9, from the spinal cord or spinal nerve disorders
The former is due to disorders of the spinal cord or spinal nerve itself, such as spinal cord tumors, spinal consumption, myelitis, arachnoiditis, and radiculitis; the latter is mainly due to mechanical compression, such as spinal cord compression caused by vertebral tumors, spinal nerve root compression caused by herniated discs or hypertrophy of the ligamentum flavum, spinal cord or spinal nerve root compression caused by spinal stenosis, and spinal nerve root compression caused by osteophytes and related structures. The nerve or vascular compression caused by osteophytes and degenerative lesions of related structures.
10.Disease of internal organs
If a disease occurs in an internal organ, the pathological stimulus can cause pain in the corresponding part of the neck and back through the diffusion of the central nervous system, but the neck and back is not actually diseased.
11.Spiritual factors
Sometimes mental factors can be the main cause of spinal disorders (such as neck and low back pain or discomfort). Such patients are often seen in people with chronic high mental stress or neurasthenia, hysteria, and emotional instability. The patient’s inhibitory processes of neural activity are weakened, muscle tension is increased, the perceptual threshold for pain is lowered, and sensitivity is increased. The nature, location, and extent of neck and low back pain are uncertain, making it elusive; however, changes in position and movements that increase intra-abdominal pressure, such as coughing, do not increase the pain. In addition, it is accompanied by a series of other symptoms, such as emotional instability, agitation, fear, pessimism, poor self-control, frequent headaches, numbness in the limbs, memory loss, etc.; sometimes it can also be accompanied by symptoms of respiratory or gastrointestinal tract disorders.
12.Other causes
Vertebral fractures, dislocations, tuberculosis, tumors or eosinophilic granuloma and other diseases can cause spinal damage and cause corresponding spinal disorders.
Second, predisposing factors
1, minor sprains and contusions
Minor sprains and contusions do not cause damage to normal people, but to the spinal instability, but can cause small intervertebral joint displacement, or intervertebral soft tissue injury at the osteophyte.
2, excessive fatigue
Normal people are overworked due to work or life, as long as a period of rest will be able to recover. For spinal degeneration or instability, a little overwork can develop.
3, poor sleep posture
Poor sleep posture is one of the causes of chronic strain on the spine. For cervical degeneration or instability, poor sleep posture is very easy to cause cervical misalignment or cervical muscle injury in a mature sleep. Such as sleeping on one side, prone, twisted waist, pillow too high or too low, etc. are all bad sleeping posture. In daily life, we often see the cervical spondylosis attack caused by the pillow.
4, bad posture in work and life
The height of the desk and chair in the office or classroom is not suitable and long-term, single-shoulder carrying, single-handed heavy objects, no preparatory activities before intense exercise, some special position of heavy physical labor, etc.
5, feel the wind, cold, damp evil
Spinal degeneration and instability, if attacked by wind, cold and dampness, there is local poor blood flow, muscle contraction is not coordinated, it can develop.
6, endocrine disorders
Patients with endocrine disorders are often complicated by plant nerve dysfunction, and this disorder can exacerbate full spinal instability. Therefore, menopausal women are prone to spine-related diseases. Premenstrual myotonic headache in women is often caused by misalignment of the small intervertebral joints between C1 and 3.