1.What is cervical spondylosis
Cervical spondylosis is a clinical syndrome with complex symptoms and wide impact caused by cervical spine osteophytes, degenerative changes of cervical discs and their secondary pathological changes, which stimulate or compress the adjacent tissues, such as nerve roots, spinal cord, vertebral artery and sympathetic nerves in the neck, also known as cervical spine syndrome. Its main manifestations are neck and shoulder discomfort, arm pain, numbness, weakness, headache, dizziness, nausea, tinnitus, blurred vision, panic, chest tightness, unstable walking, drifting, weakness of limbs and even loss of control of urination and defecation.
Research shows that 25% of people around 50 years old have suffered or are suffering from cervical spondylosis, reaching 50% by the age of 60. China is now an aging society, and cervical spondylosis has become a common and frequent disease.
Cervical spondylosis is not simply a disease of the cervical spine, but a clinical syndrome with many clinical manifestations: (1) the preliminary signs of cervical spondylosis: regular “pillow”, neck pain, stiffness and discomfort, obvious after long hours of ambulatory work; (2) the main symptoms of cervical spondylosis: neck pain, pain involving the upper back, accompanied by upper limb pain and weakness, finger Some patients also experience dizziness, headache, tinnitus, nausea, vomiting and other symptoms of insufficient blood supply to the brain, and a few patients even experience lower limb weakness, walking on cotton, loss of control of urination and defecation, limb paralysis and other symptoms. (3) Other manifestations of cervical spondylosis: When the sympathetic nerves in the neck are affected, many patients with cervical spondylosis will also have cardiovascular symptoms such as panic, chest tightness or elevated blood pressure, while various cardiovascular system examinations have no obvious positive signs found.
Pain, dizziness and numbness are the three main symptoms of cervical spondylosis, and neck pain is the primary underlying feature.
Common cervical spondylosis is divided into five types;: cervical type, nerve root type, vertebral artery type, sympathetic nerve type, and spinal cord type.
2.Self-discovery of cervical spondylosis
The human spine has a very strong compensatory function, and most people do not have typical symptoms at the beginning of cervical spondylosis. When one of the following symptoms appears, it is likely that you already have cervical spondylosis and need to start paying attention to the maintenance or treatment of the cervical spine.
Neck and shoulder pain: It is only manifested as neck and shoulder pain without any other accompanying symptoms. The pain is mainly soreness and discomfort or mild pain, sometimes recurring, but the pain points are not always the same. The pain is usually associated with long hours of ambulatory work, aggravated when fatigued and relieved after rest. When the neck is moved, the sound of “clicking, clicking” of the joints can be heard.
Upper extremity pain: radiating pain in the shoulder, arm, and hand, initially intermittent, then developing into persistent pain, possibly accompanied by numbness in the fingers, reduced muscle strength in the upper extremity, or even muscle atrophy. At the beginning of the disease, the pain is mostly in one side of the lower neck or upper chest, and gradually extends to the shoulder, arm and hand.
Numbness of the fingers: numbness of the fingers is a common symptom that can be caused by a variety of diseases. Numbness of the fingers caused by cervical spondylosis is mostly nerve root type distribution, visible as radiating pain in the forearm, sometimes the strength of the affected limb and the grip of the hand is weakened, mostly unilateral, a few have bilateral, mostly symptoms appear gradually without a history of trauma. It is mostly accompanied by obvious neck stiffness, pain, pressure pain, and limitation of activities, and sometimes the symptoms of hand numbness are aggravated when the neck is moved or the position is changed.
Limb numbness: a series of symptoms caused by the compression of the cervical spinal cord by osteophytes and herniated discs at the posterior edge of the cervical spine. In the early stage, it may just feel pain in the neck and neck, and then there are symptoms such as functional and sensory impairment of the upper limbs, numbness and weakness of the lower limbs, abnormal gait or difficulty in walking in the lower limbs, a feeling of constriction in the chest and abdomen, and frequent bowel movements and loss of control of urination.
Vertigo: vertigo caused by stimulation or compression of vertebral artery, resulting in insufficient blood supply to the brain. The main symptom is vertigo, which may be accompanied by tinnitus, nausea and vomiting, headache and other symptoms. Vertigo is often associated with postural changes or neck activities.
Headache: The headache caused by cervical thrust disease is most common with vascular headache and neuropathic headache, mostly located in the occipital region and lower occipital region, which can be unilateral or bilateral and radiates to the forehead, eyes or top of the head. Vascular headache is a throbbing or burning pain, while neuropathic headache is a paresthesia, tingling pain or swelling and numbing pain. It may be accompanied by dizziness, tinnitus, loss of vision, and eye discomfort.
Neurasthenia: easy fatigue, distraction, lack of energy, dizziness, poor memory, insomnia, dreaminess, dizziness, etc.
Eye symptoms: mainly cervical spine and upper thoracic spine lesions, resulting in functional disorders leading to visual impairment and eye symptoms. Such as eye pain, eye swelling and discomfort, blurred vision, dry eyes and reduced vision, etc. No abnormal findings by eye examination.
Blood pressure abnormalities: cervical spondylosis affects increased or decreased sympathetic excitability, resulting in increased or decreased blood pressure.
3.Cervical spondylosis etiology
Modern medical research shows that the occurrence of cervical spondylosis is related to chronic strain injury, acute trauma, occupation, living habits, physical fitness and endocrine level. Specifically as follows.
(1) Chronic strain injury: Chronic strain injury refers to the injury brought about by excessive activities beyond the normal physiological range. Because it is different from obvious trauma or accidents in life and work, it is easy to be ignored. But in fact, it is the most common factor constituting the degeneration of the cervical spine bone and joint, and has a close relationship with the occurrence, development and prognosis of cervical spondylosis. This kind of strain mainly includes: bad sleeping posture, uncomfortable sitting posture, improper exercise.
(2) Cervical trauma: various systemic trauma has an impact on the cervical spine locally, and about half of the cases of cervical spondylosis are directly related to trauma, and on the basis of cervical spine degeneration and instability, cervical trauma is more likely to induce cervical spondylosis. Acute trauma to the cervical spine can cause displacement of the cervical spine or serious contusion of the neck, and can also cause damage to the cervical intervertebral disc, local soft tissue edema, and irritation or compression of the nerve roots to produce symptoms of cervical spondylosis. Common traumatic injuries include the following: traffic accidents, sports injuries, accidents in daily life, and injuries of medical origin.
(3) Chronic infection: chronic pharyngeal infection is an important pathogenetic factor of cervical spondylosis. Local inflammatory lesions can directly stimulate the adjacent muscles and ligaments, resulting in reduced muscle tone, ligamentous laxity and imbalance inside and outside the vertebral body, leading to the occurrence of cervical spondylosis.
(4) Congenital malformation of the cervical spine: congenital fusion of vertebrae, etc. is easy to induce cervical spondylosis.
Chinese medicine believes that the common causes of cervical spondylosis can be summarized as follows
(1) liver and kidney deficiency, tendons and bones decline: Chinese medicine believes that people to “five eight kidney failure”, “seven eight liver failure”, indicating that people to middle age after the decline of the organs, tendons and bones loss of nourishment, degeneration.
(2) Wind, cold and dampness paralysis, obstruction of meridians and collaterals: the invasion of wind, cold and dampness, resulting in poor circulation of qi and blood and causing pain, soreness and numbness in the joints of the limbs and unfavorable activities.
(3) Phlegm and dampness stagnation and stagnation of meridians: Due to the dysfunction of the lung, spleen and kidney organs, phlegm and dampness stagnate in the body and cause the meridians to run poorly, resulting in symptoms such as dizziness, vomiting and numbness of the extremities.
4.Cervical spondylosis pathology
The cervical spine is the segment of the spine with the smallest volume but the greatest flexibility and the highest frequency of activity. Therefore, as the human body develops, grows and matures, degenerative changes gradually occur due to various loads, strains and even trauma.
(1) Degeneration of the cervical intervertebral disc
Chronic strain, trauma and inflammation are the contributing factors.
(2) Bone spur formation of the vertebral body
From the perspective of the body’s defense function, bone spurs can also be regarded as a protective self-defense measure of the body, increasing the stability of the vertebral body to a certain extent. The formation of bone spurs is a product of the degeneration of the intervertebral disc to a certain extent, indicating that the degeneration of the cervical spine has entered a stage that is difficult to reverse.
(3) Secondary pathological changes
That is, the cervical intervertebral disc and bone spur pathological changes on the surrounding tissues caused by the corresponding changes.
Compression of spinal nerve roots, local inflammation, and compression of the spinal cord, vertebral artery, and sympathetic nerve result in lesions.
(4) Changes in other tissues
Degeneration in other parts of the cervical spine is not limited to the intervertebral disc and the adjacent vertebral body edges and hook vertebral joints, but also includes: small joint degeneration, ligament degeneration, and spinal stenosis.
5.Cervical spondylosis self massage
(1) press the wind pool: use the ribbed surface of both thumbs to press both sides of the wind pool point for 1 minute each, localized to have a significant sense of soreness and swelling.
(2) Pressing the cervical spine: using the index finger, middle finger, ring finger three fingers to press and rub the cervical vertebrae in the middle and both sides, while pressing and rubbing while moving, up and down 10 times each round trip, the left hand presses the right acupuncture point, the right hand presses the left acupuncture point, the local should have a clear sense of soreness and swelling.
(3) take the neck: use the four fingers and palm root relative force to take the neck, while lifting and moving, up and down round trip 5 times.
(4) Traction on the cervical spine: cross the four fingers of both hands at the back of the neck, stretch the head backward, and lift the hands forward and upward at the same time for 5 times.
(5) Cross-rubbing the neck: Place the palm of the right hand on the back of the neck and rub the heat horizontally from side to side.
Add and subtract with symptoms: press and rub the affected acupuncture points
Neck pain – Fengfu (feel upward along the midline of the cervical vertebrae, and there is a depression when it reaches the skull)
Arm pain – Quchi (when flexing the elbow, at the lateral end of the transverse elbow line)
Hand numbness – hand Sanli (2 inches below Quchi, width of index finger, middle finger and ring finger together)
Headache – Sun (depression above the outer corner of the eye)
Dizziness – rate valley (1 horizontal finger on the tip of the ear)
6, cervical spondylosis self-exercise
Neck exercise can be done as “rice” exercises. Take a standing or sitting position, feet apart and shoulder width, arms crossed waist, breathing naturally, specific actions.
(1) forward and backward: Inhale the neck as far as possible forward flexion, so that the lower jaw close to the sternal stalk edge, exhale the head and neck to restore the neutral position; then inhale the neck back to the maximum, exhale the head and neck to restore the neutral position, the waist and back do not move, repeatedly 4 * 4 beat.
(2) Lateral bending of the neck: inhalation of the head to the left side of the lateral bend, exhale the head to restore the neutral position; then inhalation of the head to the right side of the lateral bend, exhale the head to restore the neutral position, the two shoulders remain parallel, repeatedly do 4 * 4 beat.
(3) look to the right and left: when inhaling, turn the head and neck to the right, look at the right rear, when exhaling, restore the head and neck to the neutral position; when inhaling, turn the head and neck to the left, look at the left rear, when exhaling, restore the head and neck to the neutral position, do not swing the shoulders back and forth, do 4*4 beats repeatedly.
(4) stretching forward to explore the sea: when inhaling, the head and neck stretch forward and turn sideways to the lower right front, look at the lower right front, when exhaling, the head and neck restore the neutral position; when inhaling again, the head and neck stretch forward and turn sideways to the lower left front, look at the lower left front, when exhaling, the head and neck restore the neutral position, repeatedly do 4*4 beats.
(5) looking back at the moon: when inhaling, turn the head and neck to the upper right back as far as possible, look at the upper right back, like looking at the moon to the sky, when exhaling, restore the neutral position of the head and neck; when inhaling again, turn the head and neck to the upper left back as far as possible, look at the upper left back, when exhaling, restore the neutral position of the head and neck, do 4*4 beats repeatedly.
The speed of the above neck exercise should be slow and the amplitude from small to large. The cervical spine exercise method is simple and easy to learn, it is important to adhere to, and can be practiced 2 to 3 times a day.
7.Self-protection
(1) pay attention to the neck to keep warm, prevent cold, especially the neck do not blow against the window, fan, air conditioning and other wind.
(2) maintain a good sleep posture, sleep pillow should not be too high, too low, too hard, the height of the pillow should be about 10 cm is appropriate, equivalent to their own fist to a fist and a half high. In addition, the pillow should be pillowed in the neck, with serious osteophytes, the head should be slightly backward.
(3) pay attention to adjust the usual work position, avoid prolonged low work, must work for a long time, about 1 hour to move the neck, so that the ligaments and muscles of the neck to get proper rest.
(4) should not be lying in bed reading, watching TV should not be too long, especially do not tilt the body crooked head to see.