Nowadays, people are generally busy at work, living a fast-paced life, high pressure, long-term ambulatory work, use of computers, do not pay attention to cervical spine health care, resulting in the incidence of cervical spondylosis is increasing year by year.
Cervical spondylosis is a clinical syndrome caused by long-term cervical spine strain, osteophytes, or disc protrusion and ligament thickening, resulting in pressure on the cervical spine crestal medulla, nerve root or vertebral artery, leading to a series of dysfunctions. The cervical spine is located below the head and above the chest, and is the smallest, most flexible, most frequently active, and heavily loaded segment of the crestal vertebrae. It is highly susceptible to degeneration because it is subjected to various loads, strain, and even trauma. Long hours of neck in a posture, ambulatory work, computer operation, looking down at the cell phone, high pillow, etc. are likely to cause strain on the neck muscles and cervical degeneration.
Patients suffering from cervical spine disease often initially show neck and shoulder pain and numbness in the hands, and some show dizziness and even unstable walking. If the symptoms of pain at the back of the neck appear in daily life, the occurrence of cervical spondylosis should be alerted, which is an early warning signal of the body to the disease. When there is just neck and shoulder discomfort, most of them are myofasciitis caused by strain, which will form chronic pain and easily recur if not controlled early.
(A) The typing of cervical spondylosis is important
Different types of cervical spondylosis have different treatment methods and prognosis. Cervical spondylosis is mainly divided into four types.
1. neurogenic cervical spondylosis – this type has the highest incidence and the main lesion is: narrowing of the intervertebral foramen resulting in compression of the cervical crest nerve, generally in the cervical 4-7 segment. High incidence age group: 30 to 50 years old. The main symptoms: early symptoms are neck pain and neck stiffness; radiating pain or numbness in the upper extremity, which radiates along the course of the compressed nerve root and the innervation area, and sometimes there is a clear relationship between the appearance and relief of symptoms and the position and posture of the patient’s neck; the affected upper extremity feels heavy and has reduced grip strength, and sometimes there is a fall of the object.
2. Cervical spondylosis of the crestal medullary type – this type is the most dangerous, and the main lesions are: cervical spondylosis leading to crestal medullary compression, inflammation, edema, etc. High incidence age group: 40 to 60 years old. Main symptoms: numbness and heaviness in the lower limbs, difficulty walking, and a feeling of stepping on cotton in both feet; numbness and pain in the upper limbs, weakness in both hands, difficulty completing fine movements such as writing, fastening buttons, holding chopsticks, etc., and easy falling of objects held; abnormal sensation in the trunk. Patients often feel a sense of constriction in the chest, abdomen, or both lower limbs.
3. Vertebral artery type cervical spondylosis – the main lesion is: insufficient blood supply due to bone spur, vascular variation or lesion. High incidence age group: 30 to 40 years old. Main symptoms: episodic vertigo, diplopia with nystagmus; sometimes accompanied by nausea, vomiting, tinnitus or hearing loss, which are related to the change of neck position; sudden weakness of lower limbs and sudden collapse, but consciousness, mostly occurs when the head and neck are in a certain position; occasional limb numbness and abnormal sensation.
4. sympathetic cervical spondylosis-the main lesion is: various cervical lesions provoke sympathetic nerve endings on the nerve roots, joint capsule or collateral ligament. High incidence age group: 30 to 45 years old. Main symptoms: dizziness, headache, poor sleep, memory loss, difficulty in concentration; eye distension, blurred vision; tinnitus, ear blockage, hearing loss; nasal congestion, “allergic rhinitis”, foreign body sensation in the throat, dry mouth, vocal cord fatigue, etc.; nausea or even vomiting, abdominal distension, diarrhea, palpitation, chest tightness, arrhythmia, change in blood pressure, etc.; excessive sweating, no sweating, chill or fever on the face or a certain limb.
(II) Cervical spondylosis prevention starts from the side
1. Change your living habits, avoid long hours of work, avoid maintaining the cervical spine in one posture for a long time, and keep the crest column straight.
2. Strengthen the exercise of neck and shoulder muscle strength, swimming is a better way to exercise the neck, shoulder, waist and back muscles. Normally, you can do forward flexion, back extension and rotation of the head and upper limbs, which can relieve fatigue and exercise muscle strength, and help maintain the stability of the cervical spine and protect the cervical discs and small joints.
3. Pay attention to the warmth of the neck and shoulders, avoid prolonged blowing air conditioning or air conditioning temperature is too low.
4. Scientific and reasonable choice of pillow, avoid the bad habit of high pillow sleep, avoid the head and neck in a state of flexion for a long time.
5. Do not doze off when sitting in a car and avoid sudden head shaking.
6. Early and thorough treatment of soft tissue strain in the neck and shoulder to avoid its development into cervical spondylosis.
7. Optimistic attitude to life, healthy lifestyle, let the cervical spine relax outside of 8 hours, and participate in swimming, badminton and other exercises appropriately.
8. prevent flash and contusion when working or walking.
(C) how to maintain a good working posture
A posture that conforms to the physiology is a good posture, and the cervical spine normally has physiological preconvexity. In the case of neck flexion, the pressure within the cervical disc is greater than the natural supination and extension position, thus easily aggravating the cervical disc degeneration. Although you can not work, but you can work through the regulation of the state to achieve the purpose of preventing neck discomfort.
First of all, the height and tilt of the desktop should be adjusted, in principle, the head, neck and chest to maintain the normal physiological curve, the line of sight flat in front or slightly tilted 5 ° -10 °, to avoid the head and neck for a long time in the supination or flexion state. Secondly, at no time should be fixed in a certain posture for a long time, at least every 1-2 hours to be able to move the whole body for about 5 minutes, to eliminate fatigue in the neck before continuing to work, which is conducive to alleviating chronic strain injury of the cervical spine.