In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of young people entering orthopedic clinics due to neck pain and discomfort, including white-collar youth, teachers, government employees and other office workers, known as “office family”. In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of young people coming to the orthopedic clinic with neck pain, including white-collar young people, teachers, government employees and other office workers, some call them “office workers”, while there are also a lot of students, especially those in middle school and high school. Professor Cheng Liming, an expert in spine surgery at Tongji Hospital of Tongji University, reminds that if you have symptoms of neck discomfort, beware of “cervical spondylosis”, it is best to go to the hospital and get timely diagnosis and guidance from the doctor so as not to miss the best time for treatment. Cervical spondylosis mostly occurs in middle-aged and elderly people, but it can also occur in young people. According to reports, the peak age of cervical spondylosis in the 1980s was 55 years old, and in the 1990s was 49 years old, while the current high incidence of cervical spondylosis has advanced to 39 years old, showing an increasingly youthful trend, it can be said that cervical spondylosis is directly forced on young people, especially “office” staff. Why is there such a big change? With the progress of society, especially since 2000, due to changes in the way of work, especially the acceleration of the pace of work, relying on computers to engage in accounting, writing, typing, office workers and other occupations, due to long-term head-down work, use of computers, driving, high pillows, sleeping on soft beds and many other factors, so that people maintain a single posture for a long time, muscle ligament fatigue, thereby accelerating the cervical and lumbar spine disease. occur. Make the cervical spine in flexion or some specific position for a long time, not only to make the pressure in the cervical intervertebral disc increased, but also make the neck muscles in a long-term non-coordinated stress state, the back of the neck muscles and ligaments are susceptible to strain, coupled with torsion, lateral flexion excessive, and further lead to injury, easy to occur cervical spondylosis. Second, the correct understanding of cervical spondylosis Professor Cheng Liming said: the human spine is composed of seven cervical vertebrae, 12 thoracic vertebrae, five lumbar vertebrae, as well as the sacrum and tailbone. The cervical, thoracic and lumbar vertebrae are composed of annular vertebrae, and each vertebra relies on the intervertebral discs in front and the small joints in the back to connect with each other like “abacus beads”, forming a bony canal called the spinal canal, in which the spinal cord travels. The nerve roots from which the spinal cord branches out penetrate the intervertebral foramen of each vertebra and govern the voluntary movements of the human body. The human cervical spine is called cervical spondylosis due to symptoms and signs caused by degenerative degeneration of the cervical intervertebral disc, cervical osteophytes or changes in the normal physiological curvature of the cervical spine after stimulation or compression of the cervical nerve roots, cervical spinal cord, vertebral artery and cervical sympathetic nerve due to strain and trauma. Based on the pathology involving the spinal cord, nerves and blood vessels, cervical spondylosis has the following main types: 1. Cervical cervical spondylosis: The earliest manifestations of cervical spondylosis are mainly cervical symptoms, so it is also called localized cervical spondylosis or cervical cervical spondylosis. The manifestations are: neck pain, soreness and swelling discomfort, often in the early morning or when waking up, some patients have limited neck movement or forced position, and individual patients may have transient sensory abnormalities in the upper limbs. The acute attack is often referred to as “falling pillow”. This type is actually the initial stage of all types of cervical spondylosis, and it is also the most favorable time for treatment. Treatment is mainly non-surgical, and most patients can be cured by conservative treatment. 2, neurogenic cervical spondylosis: this type is the most common, accounting for about 50%-60%. Due to the degeneration of cervical spine, the compression object compresses the spinal nerve root or passively pulls it to produce nerve root symptoms. Patients exhibit neck and shoulder pain, radial pain in the forearm and pain in the radial side of the hand. 3.Spinal cord type cervical spondylosis: it accounts for about 10%-15% of cervical spondylosis. The symptoms of this type are the most serious because the degenerative structure of the cervical spine compresses the spinal cord. It shows numbness and weakness of the upper or lower limbs, clumsiness of fine movements, and the late emergence of urinary frequency or urination, defecation difficulties and other urinary and fecal dysfunctions. In spinal cord cervical spondylosis, the natural history of the disease will gradually develop to aggravate the symptoms, so the diagnosis should be promptly surgical treatment. If the spinal cord injury is heavy and long, the surgical treatment is not effective. Third, how to prevent cervical spondylosis Prof. Cheng Liming proposed that the occurrence of cervical spondylosis can be reduced through prevention and health care in view of the situation that “office workers” are prone to cervical spondylosis. Correct sitting posture: To prevent the occurrence of cervical spondylosis, the most important thing is to sit correctly. In the sitting posture should maintain a natural sitting position, relax the neck and shoulders, maintain the most comfortable and natural posture, hips and back to fully contact the chair surface, shoulders back, two shoulder line parallel to the edge of the table, the spine is straight, two feet on the ground. Adjust the height of the table and chair to the best state in proportion to their height, so that the eyes level to the computer screen, shoulders relaxed. Avoid excessive forward bending of the head and neck or excessive backward, to reduce the neck fatigue caused by prolonged sitting. Office workers should also stand up and walk around from time to time, so that the neck and shoulder muscles can be relaxed. Look up: When a long time to see things up close, especially in a low state, both affect the cervical spine, but also easy to cause visual fatigue, and even induce refractive error. Therefore, whenever the case after too long, should look up into the distance for about half a minute. This can eliminate fatigue, but also conducive to cervical spine health care. Sleep mode: pillow selection should be selected for good breathability, the center should be slightly concave. Pillow can not be too high, too hard or too low, can always adjust the height of the pillow to the physiological position is better, the general height of 8cm ~ 15cm is appropriate. Those who are accustomed to the side lying position should make the pillow the same height as the shoulder. The neck should be in full contact with the pillow and keep slightly back, do not hang. When sleeping, do not lie down and read a book. Do not blow cold wind on the head and neck. Avoid injury: avoid and reduce acute cervical spine injury, such as avoiding heavy lifting, emergency braking, etc. Prevent cold and dampness: prevent wind and cold and dampness, and avoid being attacked by wind and cold at midnight and in the early morning when bathing. Patients with cervical spondylosis often have a close relationship with seasonal climate change such as wind chill and humidity. Wind chill causes local vasoconstriction and reduced blood flow rate, which hinders tissue metabolism and blood circulation. In winter, you should wear a scarf or a high-collared sweater when you go out to prevent the neck from being exposed to wind and cold. Prevent infection: actively treat neck infection and other neck diseases. Fourth, cervical spondylosis self-care cervical spondylosis is caused by degeneration of the cervical vertebrae, the incidence and extent of which increases with age and becomes more and more serious. However, cervical degeneration is not the same as cervical spondylosis, even if it is accompanied by symptoms of cervical spondylosis, it may heal itself as the years go by. Some scholars have observed more than 200 cases of incipient cervical spondylosis with a follow-up of more than 10 years; nearly 80% of the patients had reduced neck pain, and the pain disappeared in more than half of the cases. Thus, it seems that the self-healing rate or cure rate of people with initial cervical spondylosis symptoms accounts for the absolute majority. Therefore, once the symptoms of cervical spondylosis appear, there is no need to be overly nervous. Before irreversible damage to the spinal cord and nerves occurs in the early stage, appropriate rehabilitation exercises can improve the blood circulation in the neck and release the adhesions and spastic soft tissues, but it is advisable to brake for protection during the acute attack of cervical spondylosis. Exercise posture is two feet apart and shoulder width, both arms naturally hanging, the whole body relaxed, both eyes flat, even breathing, standing and sitting can be. Specific actions are: look to the left and look to the right: head first to the left and then to the right, the amplitude should be large, in order to feel sore, 30 times. Before and after nodding: head before and then after, when the front stoop neck as far forward as possible to lengthen, 30 times. Rotate your shoulders and neck: place your hands on both sides of your shoulders, palms down, rotate your arms forward 20-30 times, then rotate 20-30 times from front to back. Shake your head: rotate your head to the left 5 times, then rotate in the opposite direction 5 times. Head and hands against each other: Cross your hands against the back of your neck, force your head and neck, and then force your head and neck backward, resisting each other 5 times. Hands to the sky: Raise both hands above the head, palms up, and look up at the back of the hands for 5 seconds. At the same time, Associate Professor Cheng Liming also stressed that there are many ways to exercise, but not moderate, not only can not play the purpose of consolidating the effect of treatment, but also lead to a relapse of the disease, so in the exercise must pay attention to the following points: slow, exercise as slow as possible, to prevent dizziness, headache. Loose, when exercising, the neck muscles must be relaxed, try not to force, so that the muscle joints. Get stretched to promote the flow of blood and Qi to speed up recovery. Quiet, exclude distractions, focus on the practice, enjoy yourself, play a good regulation of physical and mental health. Constant, exercise should be persistent, 3 times a day, each time should be measured, self-care massage after practice, such as a pinch, point press Fengchi, large vertebrae, shoulder well points, there will be satisfactory results. Five, surgery can treat cervical spondylosis How to do when you have cervical spondylosis? Prof. Cheng Liming said: there are many non-professional medical institutions in the society for the psychology of patients afraid of surgery, propagating various ways to treat cervical spondylosis without surgery, sometimes delaying the disease, and even aggravating the disease due to wrong treatment, the most serious can lead to paralysis. Most cervical spondylosis can be relieved by means of health care, but there are a considerable number of patients who need to go to the hospital for related treatment. In cases such as spinal cord cervical spondylosis with significant spinal cord compression and neurogenic cervical spondylosis with clear nerve compression, they should undergo surgery. In response to the concern about the risk of surgery, Professor Cheng Liming said that surgery for cervical spondylosis is now a very mature treatment method. As early as 1958, Smith, Robinson and Cloward reported good results in the treatment of cervical spondylosis by direct excision of the compressor and intervertebral fusion in the anterior cervical approach respectively. In particular, the development of modern medical science and technology has provided a good technical guarantee for surgery, and the treatment of cervical spondylosis has made great progress, and the complications have been greatly reduced. Professor Cheng Liming also emphasized that the diagnosis before surgery is very important and must be confirmed in a regular hospital, including X-rays, MRI, vertebral arteriography, etc. Of course, because of the greater risk of cervical spinal cord damage, treatment should also be received in a regular hospital to avoid accidents.