New understanding of cervical spondylosis in acupuncture medicine

  Cervical spondylosis is a common, frequent and difficult clinical disease, and with the change of modern life and work style, the incidence of cervical spondylosis has a trend of gradual growth, and it is developing to younger and younger. Due to the increasing role of computers and networks in people’s study, life and entertainment, cervical spondylosis is common among college students and high school students. The growing and youthful trend has caused great pain to patients with cervical spondylosis and has brought a heavy burden to society and families. Therefore, it is important to find a treatment that is highly effective and less painful.  Cervical spondylosis has so far been a major medical problem, and there is no complete and standardized definition of cervical spondylosis that can be recognized by most people so far. This demonstrates the complexity of the etiology and pathology of cervical spondylosis. Based on the different understanding of the etiology of cervical spondylosis, there are various clinical treatments for cervical spondylosis, mainly including surgical and non-surgical treatments. The vast majority of cervical spondylosis can be cured or relieved by non-surgical treatments.  Non-surgical treatments include cervical spine traction, acupuncture, massage, physical therapy, nerve block, oral and external application of Chinese herbal medicine, etc. The emergence of acupuncture medicine has opened up a new treatment pathway for the treatment of cervical spondylosis, which has been widely used in clinical practice, achieving good treatment results and gaining more and more attention.  Acupuncture medicine is a new medical discipline formed under the guidance of the basic theory of Chinese medicine, absorbing the achievements of modern natural science and Western medicine, and then creating. After 30 years of development, a complete set of theoretical system has been formed, and acupuncture medicine includes four basic theories and six major components. Acupuncture medicine is one of the successful examples of modernization of TCM in terms of basic theories. Acupuncture is a method of applying needles to treat a variety of diseases under the guidance of knowledge of fine anatomy, three-dimensional anatomy, dynamic anatomy, and body surface positioning; acupuncture is the general term for the therapeutics of acupuncture medicine.  The needle knife used in the treatment of acupuncture medicine is a medical device that can be pierced into the human body in the way of needles and can play the therapeutic role of a knife in the human body. The needle knife is a fusion of acupuncture needle and scalpel, its shape is similar to acupuncture needle, slightly thicker, 1 mm in diameter; the tip of the needle is the blade, only 0.8 mm wide, flat gourd-shaped needle handle and blade in the same plane. Therefore, the needle knife can play the role of acupuncture through acupuncture techniques, but also in the body to play a cutting, peeling and other scalpel role.  Because the needle knife can be pierced into the body like an acupuncture needle, the damage caused during cutting and peeling is minimal and no incision is visible, not to mention the need for suturing.  According to acupuncture medicine, the root cause of cervical spondylosis is dynamic balance imbalance and force balance imbalance. The neck must be protected and maintained by strong soft tissues, such as ligaments and muscles, in order to support the weight of the head and ensure normal head and neck movements. Therefore, these soft tissues are subjected to various stresses every moment. When these soft tissues are under abnormal {stress action for a long time, it will definitely lead to soft tissue injury. The human body has a strong self-healing function and often produces adhesions, scarring, contractures and other pathological factors in the process of self-healing.  At the same time, these changes in stress and new pathological factors will cause changes in bone structure, such as changes in curvature, front-back, left-right, rotation and other displacements in mild cases, or large displacement of vertebral body in severe cases, resulting in compression of spinal cord, nerves, vertebral artery, etc., resulting in a series of pathological changes and various complex clinical symptoms, such as neck and shoulder pain and discomfort, arm and finger pain, numbness, headache, dizziness, tinnitus, blurred vision The symptoms of cervical spondylolisthesis include pain and discomfort in the neck and shoulders, pain and numbness in the arms and fingers, headache, dizziness, tinnitus, blurred vision, insomnia, nausea, vomiting, panic and chest tightness, and even weakness in the limbs, difficulty in walking and urinary and fecal disorders.  Based on the understanding of the causes of cervical spondylosis, acupuncture and knife medicine treats the underlying causes of cervical spondylosis so as to completely cure cervical spondylosis. Acupuncture therapy is mainly based on acupuncture treatment, supplemented by manipulation, complemented by drugs and assisted by instruments. First of all, acupuncture can completely loosen the pathological factors such as adhesions, scars and contractures, and break the vicious cycle of {stress forming pathological factors and new pathological factors leading to greater stress.  On this basis, the displaced joints and vertebrae are then reset through manipulation, so that the biomechanics of the cervical spine is quickly adjusted, a new dynamic balance and force balance is established, the cervical nerve, vertebral artery, sympathetic nerve, spinal cord and other compressions are released, and the cervical spondylosis is cured with the assistance of drugs and instruments.  Acupuncture treatment for cervical spondylosis has the advantages of fast and remarkable efficacy, short course of treatment, little pain and no toxic side effects, which has a broad development prospect and is worth promoting.