Cervical spondylosis should be considered for vertigo

  Vertigo is one of the common clinical symptoms and can be seen in many diseases in Western medicine. And vertigo is also a common and frequent disease in the elderly. In general, when you go to the hospital, you often consider neurological diseases such as Meniere’s disease, high and low blood pressure, cerebral atherosclerosis and other diseases and ignore vertigo caused by cervical spondylosis.  Cervical spondylosis is a common disease in people of middle age and above. It is caused by degenerative changes in the cervical spine (such as degeneration or protrusion of the cervical disc, narrowing of the cervical disc, loosening of the joint capsule and formation of progressive bone redundancy) that stimulate or compress the nerves and vascular tissues in the neck, resulting in various forms of syndromes.  Cervical spondylosis is clinically divided into cervical, radicular, spinal, vertebral artery and sympathetic types. The majority of the clinical manifestations tend to be of the mixed type, i.e., patients can have all of these types at the same time. The vertebral artery type of cervical spondylosis is mainly characterized by headache and dizziness, and the dizziness is aggravated when the neck is extended backward or bent to the side, and may be accompanied by nausea or even sudden collapse. However, due to the change of neck position after sudden collapse, the patient can wake up immediately and the symptoms are reduced. This is because cervical spine osteophytes can compress the vertebral artery, which is more obvious when the cervical spine is posteriorly extended or laterally bent, causing insufficient blood supply to the vertebral artery, resulting in dizziness symptoms. When the position of the head and neck changes, the vascular cavity becomes smaller, which can trigger or aggravate the symptoms. Therefore, cervical spondylosis should be considered when the elderly have postural vertigo (i.e., vertigo occurs when changing the neck position). The diagnosis of the disease can be confirmed by X-ray and cerebral hemogram.  Treatment is based on tui na and acupuncture with internal and external application of Chinese herbal medicine. Tui na can adjust the position of the osteophytes and the nerve roots and blood vessels, release the pressure on the nerve vessels, release the spasm of the neck muscles and ligaments and the adhesion of the soft tissues, and promote blood circulation in the neck. Accompanied by acupuncture and Chinese medicine to enhance the therapeutic effect. The elderly should pay attention to the warmth of the neck, strengthen the functional exercise of the neck, and the neck should not be turned excessively. Lie down with low pillow and should not work for a long time to reduce the occurrence of vertigo.