Cervical spondylosis is trending younger
In recent years, the incidence of cervical spondylosis has been on the rise year by year. Although no detailed statistics have been done, if 60 patients come in a day during outpatient visits, about 50 of them are cervical spondylosis. Since cervical spondylosis is a degenerative disease, the majority of patients are over 55 years old. However, it is clinically found that there is a trend of cervical spondylosis becoming younger, and more and more young people are forced to join the army of cervical spondylosis, which deserves our attention.
Some of the reasons why cervical spondylosis is becoming younger are caused by the way we work now and the fast pace, with more young patients working in offices, which is related to their long hours of computer use and poor posture. The emergence of tablet computers and intelligent cell phones has also contributed to a group of “low-headed people”, playing such digital products for a long time on the way to and from work, which is another cause of the high incidence of cervical spondylosis. At the same time, more people are now driving themselves, driving if the speed is too much, in case of emergency emergency braking, is also a major killer of the cervical spine, easy to cause cervical spine “whip injury”. This also shows that cervical spondylosis is also caused by some bad neck habits in life, which also needs to be alerted.
Three major symptoms to detect cervical spondylosis
Cervical spondylosis is not difficult to find, it has relatively obvious physical symptoms, Professor Shen said these symptoms can be summarized in three words “pain, numbness, lack of”.
Pain: Pain in the back of the neck, shoulders and arms.
Acute herniated discs or acute trauma can produce pain. Professor Shen said that sometimes the pain can cause patients do not know where to put their hands, they often feel very painful when the hand drops, so many patients are holding their arms into the clinic.
Numbness: Numbness in both hands and feet.
This is a progression from pain. Patients often have a very long history of disease, and after the nerve is damaged by compression, conduction is blocked and numbness is produced. When the patient’s fingers are numb, some very fine movements cannot be completed, such as buttoning with difficulty, picking up coins, needles and other small things that fall on the floor. The numbness of both feet is manifested by the lack of solidity on the floor, the feeling that the soles of the feet are thick, and the feeling of stepping on cotton when walking. In addition, numbness caused by cervical spondylosis, often persistent, if not timely formal treatment, nerve damage is becoming increasingly serious, then it is possible that even after surgery, the symptoms of numbness will still exist, need more time to repair the nerve, recovery time to be very long, numbness for more than six months before surgery, generally after surgery numbness will never go away.
Lack of: no strength in both arms and legs.
Most often, there is no strength to carry things with both hands, or the legs do not obey, can not cross out, for example, not far from seeing the bus coming, want to speed up the steps to catch up, but the feet do not compete, just can not catch up and missed, only to wait for the next class. Some patients in the advanced stage of cervical spondylosis will also show weakness in urination and constipation to finger picking, which is a very serious manifestation of cervical spondylosis.
If you have the above performance, you should be concerned about whether your cervical spine is still healthy.
Sometimes cervical spondylosis can also be a sound bite. The cervical spine is the first gate of the brain’s transmission pathway, so it can show various discomforts below the neck if there is a problem. Some patients’ symptoms are not so typical, so a differential diagnosis is needed at this time.
Many patients in the clinic will have symptoms of panic and chest tightness, and the most common thought is that there is a problem with the heart. However, Professor Shen informed that some of these patients may have “cervical heart syndrome”, which is actually a cervical spine problem, manifesting as a rope binding the chest and back, tightness in the chest, fast heartbeat, or even high blood pressure and dizziness like a high lawyer’s mother. Therefore, it is recommended that patients over 60 years old should also check for cervical spine problems in addition to having their heart checked.
In addition, there are also some patients who will show that their abdomen is also like a belt tightening, they have no appetite for meals and their stomach always feels full. In addition to considering gastrointestinal diseases, they also need to beware of the possibility of cervical spondylosis.
Prevention is better than cure to avoid suffering from cervical spondylosis
Prevention of cervical spondylosis is more important than treatment. If you can protect your cervical spine and exercise your neck reasonably and scientifically, you can minimize the pain of cervical spondylosis. Professor Shen suggests that the following points should be noted in daily life.
First, improve and adjust the state of sleep. “High pillow may not be worry-free”, when sleeping if the pillow is too high, it will change the physiological curvature of the cervical spine, just like sitting with the head down, a night’s sleep, but let the cervical spine is very tired. So sleep with a pillow not too high, in line with the physiological curvature of the cervical spine is appropriate, it is best to choose a small pillow, it is appropriate to pillow in the back of the neck rather than pillow in the head, which can play a certain preventive role.
Second, correct and improve the bad habitual body position at work. The staff should be regular or timely correction of the head and neck strain posture, its working time should not exceed 1 hour continuously, and pay attention to read, write or work to straighten the waist, try to maintain a relaxed neck posture.
Third, appropriate exercise.
(1) Self-traction. If you suddenly feel neck pain, or shoulder back and upper limbs have radiating pain, you can cross your hands together, lift it over your head on the occipital neck, after the head back, hands gradually force to the head direction traction 5 to 10 seconds, so 3 to 4 times in a row can play a role in relieving the pressure of the intervertebral space. The principle is to use the force of upward traction with both hands, so that the cervical spine gap away, so that the nucleus pulposus of the posterior protrusion may be returned, can also change the cervical joint line and play a role in relieving symptoms.
(2) Aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise can take away the bad metabolites in the body, neck muscle strain will also produce metabolites similar to lactic acid, exercise sweating can excrete it, it can relieve the symptoms of discomfort. The best exercise is swimming, swimming cervical spine will not be affected by gravity, and swimming head up for air, neck back, not only exercise the muscles of the neck, but also the protruding disc pressure back, long-term persistence can even cure mild cervical disc herniation.
(3) walk backwards. Hold up slightly after stretching the neck backwards, is also a reverse movement, can relieve the rear muscle tension.
Fourth, avoid dozing off while sitting in the car. When sitting in a long-distance car, you can wear a neck brace or pillow a neck pillow to do proper protection.
Treatment of cervical spondylosis
Overall 95% of patients with cervical spondylosis can be treated conservatively, only 5% of patients need surgery, and only about 2% of outpatients actually undergo surgery.
(1) Braking. Early patients can wear a cervical brace for immobilization to allow the head and neck to rest. Do not do too strenuous neck exercises when the cervical spine is in trouble, and the more painful it is, the more rest is needed.
(2) Cervical spine traction. It is a very good treatment method, it is recommended to do long time low weight traction, lying traction than sitting traction effect is good. Therefore, it is recommended that patients have a “pillow and jaw belt traction” at home and traction with a weight of about 3 kg at night while sleeping.
(3) Acupuncture. It has a certain effect of opening the meridians and increasing blood circulation. For tui na to be treated with caution, you must find a qualified Chinese medicine doctor in a regular hospital to carry out, do not go to the health center to do informal tui na.
(4) Drugs. In case of seizures, you can take pain-relieving, nerve-nourishing and blood-stasis-activating drugs as prescribed by the doctor.
(5) Surgery. For patients with severe pain that is difficult to tolerate and has seriously affected their lives, surgery can be performed. For patients with spinal cord type, once the diagnosis is clear, early surgery is recommended. At present, in the early and middle stages of cervical spondylosis, the problem can usually be solved by minimally invasive surgery in front of the neck, with minimal trauma and pain, and you can get out of bed the next day. In the late stages, more painful surgery at the back of the neck is often required to relieve the condition.
In conclusion, the cervical spine is one of the most delicate motor units in the human body, but at the same time it is so flexible and orderly that damage or aging of any of its parts can lead to cervical spondylosis, and its aging lesion is a long-term, slow process that does not happen in a day. The key is to prevent the disease before it happens, to maintain a healthy lifestyle and pay attention to self-care of the neck; once it comes to the point where surgery is needed, there is no need to be afraid, because for regular qualified and experienced spine surgeons, cervical spine surgery is one of the least invasive and most accurate surgical procedures.