Many patients over 40 years old will encounter such a problem, age seems to be the time to get heart disease, one day suddenly appeared chest tightness, panic, shortness of breath symptoms, this situation you must be very nervous, must immediately go to the hospital for a variety of checks, but the results of the examination is very strange, the heart does not have any problems! You must be very confused, in the end what is wrong? Well, I’m here to tell you that you probably have a problem with your cervical spine. You must be even more confused, why would a cervical spine disease have heart symptoms? Then let me tell you slowly. The cervical spine is the connection area between the human head and the trunk, with a large range of motion, and also bears the weight of the head, with the age, an immutable natural process occurs, we call it “degeneration” or “aging”. According to modern scientific research, the human body reaches its peak of development at the age of 18-20, and then begins to go downhill. Don’t be surprised, this is a natural law, no one can change. Now let’s learn about anatomy, the cervical spine is a complex of vertebrae, intervertebral discs and surrounding muscles, ligaments, composed of intervertebral discs by the fibrous ring, nucleus pulposus, cartilage plate, is the body’s shock absorption system. The main component of the nucleus pulposus is water, accounting for about 80%, and degeneration begins at the earliest by the intervertebral disc, first the water in the nucleus pulposus begins to decrease, the elasticity then decreases, and then small cracks appear in the annulus fibrosus, you do not underestimate this small crack, it is the main cause of early pain in your neck. Since the surface of the annulus fibrosus is rich in nerves, the loss of elasticity and cracks will pull on the nerves and cause pain. At the same time, the pain signal is transmitted to the surrounding muscles, causing muscle tension and spasm. Unfortunately, there are two very important structures on both sides of the cervical vertebrae, which we call “sympathetic nerve chain”, which is part of the human vegetative nervous system and has extensive contact with the internal organs of the body. The heart is an extremely sensitive organ, and when the external sympathetic signal reaches the heart, the heart will react quickly, and the heart rate will increase, and panic and shortness of breath will occur. Since the human body has a strong compensatory capacity, the signal is not continuously transmitted to the heart, so you do not always feel the panic. The symptoms tend to be episodic, with the number of episodes varying from day to day, so most doctors and patients think it’s a heart problem. But when you go to the hospital in a panic for a cardiac examination, you can’t find out what’s going on, even if 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring is normal on your doctor’s advice. I have seen many such patients, and the longest period of time was six months without proper diagnosis and treatment. Now you understand, you should see an orthopedic surgeon, although most orthopedic surgeons do not know much about this disease, but experienced doctors can still make the correct diagnosis. The following is about the treatment, the current orthopedic conventional treatment for cervical spondylosis is only conservative and surgical methods, surgical treatment has strict indications and most patients are difficult to accept. There are many methods of conservative treatment, which we always call physical therapy, and the advantages are obvious, that is, safe and non-invasive. The advantages are obvious: it is safe and non-invasive. However, this treatment has obvious drawbacks: first, it is long and difficult to work in the short term, and second, it is ineffective when the disease has progressed to a certain level. Why is that? Because the early stage of neck muscle lesions can be restored by improving blood circulation, but with the development of lesions, there is bound to be a group of muscle contracture, or even fibrosis, when physical therapy will not be effective. So, you may ask, “Do I just have to live with it? No. Acupuncture is an effective treatment method. You may ask: What is acupuncture, do I have to operate? The tip of the needle is not pointed like an ordinary needle, but has a flat edge. Its main job is to cut away part of the already fibrotic tissue, while not cutting it all off (the blade is so small that it is impossible to cut it off), so that the first thing to be restored is the length of the muscle tissue, and then as the lesion is absorbed and rebuilt, the softness of the tissue is restored, the balance of the cervical spine returns to normal again, and your symptoms disappear.