Normal physiological curvature of cervical vertebra The method of measuring physiological curvature of cervical vertebra is to connect the rear edge of each vertebral body into an arc from the rear upper edge of odontoid process downward, and then make a straight line from the rear upper edge of odontoid process to the rear lower edge of the seventh cervical vertebra. The maximum distance from the highest point of an arc to a straight line is the physiological curvature of the cervical vertebra. The normal range is about 12 (5) mm.
The existence of physiological curvature of cervical spine can increase the elasticity of cervical spine, reduce and buffer the impact of gravity, and prevent the damage to spinal cord and brain. Due to long-term sitting posture, poor sleeping posture and dehydration degeneration of intervertebral disc nucleus pulposus, cervical lordosis can gradually disappear, even become straight or kyphosis, which has become one of the more important diagnostic basis of cervical spondylosis on X-ray film.
The cause of disease
(1) Acute neck muscle sprain: Due to the pain and spasm of muscles, the muscles pull the bones and straighten the physiological curvature of the neck.
(2) Fibrositis of the neck and shoulder muscles: Due to poor sitting posture, catching cold and other reasons, it can cause fibrositis of the neck and shoulder muscles and make the muscles spasm due to pain. Pain caused by inflammation of joint capsule, ligament and facet joint can also lead to straightening of physiological curvature of cervical spine.
(3) Cervical spondylotic radiculopathy: In the acute stage, due to acute inflammation of the affected facet joints, swelling of joint periosteum and joint capsule, and stimulation of adjacent nerve roots, patients often have neck and shoulder tension, and their activities are obviously limited, which can cause the physiological curvature of cervical spine to become straight.
(4) Cervical lesions: such as cervical tumor, tuberculosis, suppurative infection, etc. It can cause neck pain, muscle spasm, limited cervical motion and physiological curvature straightening.
(5) Ankylosing spondylitis, which can cause cervical rigidity in the late stage.
The main symptoms are head, neck, shoulders, back and arms pain, stiff neck and limited movement. Then dizziness, very dizzy, and vomiting in severe cases are all common symptoms.
Some people may have no symptoms, and some people may have hand numbness (cervical spondylotic radiculopathy), neck pain and discomfort. In more serious cases, they will have symptoms such as dizziness, dizziness, nausea and dizziness. Cervical spondylosis is a kind of disease that seriously endangers the health of desk workers, and its manifestations are various. Mainly neck and back pain, upper limb weakness, finger numbness, dizziness, nausea and even blurred vision, dysphagia.
Disease pathology
Under normal circumstances, people's cervical spine presents a certain curvature, which is manifested as protruding forward. However, due to some adverse external factors, it is easy to cause the physiological curvature of cervical spine to become straight. These bad external causes mainly include acute neck sprain, bad living habits and working posture, and neck and shoulder myofibrositis.
Trauma may induce this disease. Many people have muscle pain, spasm and pulling to the bone, which leads to the phenomenon that the curvature of cervical spine becomes straight. Therefore, we should pay attention to avoid trauma and other factors in daily life.
Due to long-term bad sitting posture, catching cold and other reasons, it can cause neck and shoulder muscle fibrositis and make muscles spasm due to pain. Pain symptoms caused by inflammation of joint capsule, ligament and facet joints can also reflexively make neck muscles spasm to protect the affected joints, so the spasm of neck muscles can straighten the physiological curvature of cervical spine.
In the acute stage of cervical spondylotic radiculopathy, due to acute inflammation of the affected facet joints, swelling of joint periosteum and joint capsule, and stimulation of adjacent nerve roots, patients often have increased neck and shoulder muscle tension, and their activities are obviously limited, which can cause the physiological curvature of cervical spine to straighten.
Cervical lesions, such as cervical tumor, tuberculosis and purulent infection, can cause neck pain, muscle spasm, limited cervical motion and physiological curvature straightening. These are the reasons that easily induce the physiological curvature of cervical spine to become straight, which need to be avoided as much as possible in daily life.
disease diagnosis
Pain in the head, shoulders, neck, arms and corresponding tender points. There are no obvious degenerative changes such as intervertebral space stenosis on X-ray film, but there may be changes in cervical physiological curve, instability between vertebral bodies and mild hyperosteogeny. This type is very common in clinic and is the earliest cervical spondylosis. Because the symptoms are mild, they are often not paid enough attention to, so that repeated attacks aggravate the condition. Many patients with repeated stiff neck belong to this change. From a large number of clinical observations, it is confirmed that this type is actually the initial stage of cervical spondylosis and the most favorable treatment opportunity.
Treatment measures
Most patients will have neck stiffness, limited activity and local muscle pain. There are many clinical methods to treat cervical physiological curvature straightness, such as minimally invasive therapy, cervical traction, massage therapy, physical therapy and so on.
1, minimally invasive treatment
Laser needle knife release: This treatment technique was first developed as a visual minimally invasive technique in Europe, and it is used to treat spinal diseases such as lumbar disc herniation and cervical spondylosis. It is also the most striking emerging therapy among minimally invasive techniques at present. This is a non-invasive technique that does not require surgery. It is effective in treating adhesion caused by soft tissue and can effectively relieve pain symptoms.
2. External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine External treatment of traditional Chinese medicine is one of the important items in the treatment of cervical spondylosis by traditional Chinese medicine.
3. Neck traction therapy
(1) Enlarge the intervertebral space and restore the stability of cervical spine and its normal physiological function.
(2) relieve muscle spasm, peel off and loosen adhesion tissue, and eliminate inflammation and edema.
(3) Enlarging intervertebral foramen and intervertebral space, pulling the contracted or ossified ligament, relieving the compressed nerve root and spinal cord, and improving its blood supply are helpful to the recovery of nerve tissue function.
(4) Open the tortuous vertebral artery, restore the proportional relationship between the length of cervical vertebra and vertebral artery, keep the vertebral artery unobstructed, maintain normal blood supply to the brain, and restore normal brain tissue function.
4. Massage therapy is one of the most common methods to relieve the symptoms of cervical spondylosis. Massage therapy of cervical spondylosis has the functions of relaxing muscles and tendons, dredging collaterals, promoting blood circulation to remove blood stasis, reducing swelling and relieving pain, dredging joints and restoring dislocation.
5. Physiotherapy is a method to prevent and treat diseases by applying natural or artificial physical factors such as sound, light, electricity, heat and magnetism to the human body, which is called physical therapy, or simply physical therapy.
Physical therapy is widely used in clinic and has its unique medical value. It is an auxiliary means to treat cervical curvature straightening. Cervical spondylosis often has intractable neck and shoulder pain, and electrotherapy and hyperthermia have good analgesic effect.
Cervical hyperosteogeny can cause inflammatory reaction when it compresses nerve roots and spinal cord. Application of ultrasound, infrared ray, electrotherapy, hyperthermia, etc. It can promote inflammation to subside and absorb edema. Inflammation can cause tissue adhesion for a long time, and patients often leave a lot of scars after operation. Physical therapy can release adhesion and soften scars.
complication
Folding dysphagia
When swallowing, the esophagus has a sense of obstruction and foreign body. A few people have symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, hoarseness, dry cough and chest tightness. This is due to the direct compression of the posterior esophageal wall by the anterior cervical vertebra, or it may be due to the rapid formation of bone spurs to stimulate the soft tissue around the esophagus.
visual disorder
It is manifested as decreased vision, swollen eyes, fear of light, tears, different pupil sizes, and even decreased vision and sharp decline in vision. Some patients may also be blind. This is related to autonomic nervous disorder caused by cervical spondylosis and ischemic damage of occipital visual center caused by vertebrobasilar artery insufficiency.
Cervical heart syndrome
It is characterized by precordial pain, chest tightness and arrhythmia (such as intermediate pulsation). ) and ST segment changes of ECG, which are easily misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease. This is caused by the stimulation and oppression of cervical spine spurs on cervical dorsal nerve roots.
Hypertensive cervical spondylosis
It can cause blood pressure to rise or fall, especially blood pressure rise, which is called "neck hypertension". Because cervical spondylosis and hypertension are common diseases in middle-aged and elderly people, they often coexist.
chest pain
It is characterized by intractable unilateral pain in pectoralis major and breast, with slow onset, and tenderness in pectoralis major during examination. This is related to the compression of nerve roots of neck 6 and neck 7 by cervical spine spurs.
paralysis of the lower limbs
Early manifestations are numbness, pain and limping of lower limbs. Some patients feel like stepping on cotton when walking, and some patients may be accompanied by defecation and urination disorders, such as frequent urination, urgency, dysuria or urinary incontinence. This is because the cervical spine spurs stimulate or compress the lateral bundle of vertebral body, which leads to motor and sensory disorders of lower limbs.
faint
Often when standing or walking, I suddenly turn my head and lose my support. I can wake up quickly after falling to the ground without any disturbance of consciousness or sequelae. Such patients may be accompanied by symptoms of autonomic nervous dysfunction such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting and sweating. This is due to vertebral artery compression caused by cervical proliferative changes, which leads to blood supply disorder of basilar artery and short-term cerebral blood supply deficiency.
Risk factors of middle-aged and elderly people
This is not to ask you to look up, "no big or small" against your elders, superiors and friends, but to keep you away from the disease of modern civilization-cervical spondylosis. This cervical spondylosis cannot be ignored. It will make your shoulders, neck and upper limbs ache and your fingers numb. "It may even cause dizziness, headache, nausea, blurred vision, unsteady walking and abnormal urination."
More and more people, old, middle-aged and young, have this disease, and there are three main factors leading to cervical spondylosis:
First, the normal curvature of the cervical spine is injured due to long-term computer operation and desk work.
Second, middle-aged and elderly people, metabolic function decline, causing cervical hyperosteogeny or calcification, affecting blood circulation, and neck pain is more likely.
Third, it is caused by trauma: except for accidental neck injury, the posture is incorrect during exercise; "Whip injury" caused by sudden back and forth movement of neck when braking; The height of the pillow is not suitable, or the neck is cold, which will cause neck pain and inconvenient movement.
In addition, the normal cervical vertebra, its curvature is backward, and the connected thoracic vertebra is forward, which is reasonably distributed. However, because we often bend our heads to work and often lift heavy objects, the cervical spine is pulled, the cervical joint is loose, the joint gap is enlarged, and the curvature of the cervical spine is "out of shape", which will naturally cause neck and shoulder pain.
Folding and editing this paragraph should be dealt with as soon as possible.
Chronic injury or degeneration of cervical vertebrae and soft tissues leads to imbalance of internal and external mechanical balance of spine, compression or stimulation of cervical blood vessels, nerves and spinal cord, pain of head, neck, shoulders, arms, upper limbs, middle back and chest, and even a group of clinical syndromes such as limb dysfunction. Mild symptoms include headache, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, neck and shoulder pain, numbness and weakness of upper limbs, tinnitus, blurred vision, chest tightness and palpitation. In severe cases, it can also lead to limb paralysis, dysuria and even life-threatening. Cervical spondylosis does not include cervical fracture and dislocation caused by acute trauma and bone tumor. There are many factors that cause and aggravate cervical spondylosis, and frequent use of pillows during sleep is one of the important reasons.
For the average person, at least 1/4~ 1/3 of every day is spent in sleep. Therefore, if the pillow is used improperly or not, it is easy to cause or aggravate cervical spondylosis. On the contrary, if you pay attention to adjusting the posture of cervical spine during sleep, it can also play a preventive and therapeutic role. Pillow is an important tool to maintain the normal position of head and neck, that is, physiological curvature. This physiological curve is not only the guarantee of the external muscle balance of the cervical spine, but also an indispensable condition for maintaining the physiological structure of the cervical spinal canal. If the pillow is not properly selected and used, it will not only destroy the external balance of maintaining the normal curvature of cervical spine, but also directly affect the internal volume of cervical spinal canal and the physiological structure of local tissues. Therefore, the height of the pillow must be highly valued.
As the saying goes, "sit back and relax", but it is not. Under normal circumstances, the physiological curve of cervical spine is lordosis. In supine position, if the pillow is too low and the head and neck lean back excessively, the lordosis will increase, which will not only make the muscles and ligaments in front of the vertebral body easily tired due to excessive tension, but also cause chronic injuries. At the same time, the tissue behind the spinal canal can protrude forward into the spinal canal, increasing the pressure in the spinal canal; Excessive head and neck reclining also makes the spinal canal elongate, and the spinal cord and nerve roots in the spinal canal are relatively shortened, which is prone to symptoms under the action of other factors. If the pillow is too high and the head and neck bend forward excessively, it is easy to strain the muscles and ligaments behind the vertebral body, thus causing or aggravating cervical spondylosis.
For those who are mainly dyskinesia, and the chest X-ray shows cervical disc herniation and/or hyperosteogeny at the posterior edge of vertebral body, which may directly oppress the spinal cord, the pillow may be slightly lower, but the head and neck should not be excessively reclined; For sensory disorders such as numbness of limbs, if it is suspected that the ligament behind the spinal canal is compressing the spinal cord, the pillow can be slightly higher; For developmental cervical spinal stenosis with hyperosteogeny at the posterior edge of vertebral body, the physiological position of pillow is better; Ankylosing spondylitis should remain neutral in the early stage. In order to effectively maintain the physiological flexion of the cervical spine and fully relax the neck muscles, the pillow should be adjusted into a saddle shape with low middle, high ends, slightly higher neck and shoulder edges and low sides, which is commonly called B-shaped pillow. A reasonable pillow should be of moderate texture, inelastic (hot-pressed sponge pillow core is better) and rectangular. Because everyone's body shape and shoulder width are different, the height of both ends of the pillow varies from person to person to ensure the physiological flexion of the cervical spine. Therefore, the pillow should be adjustable, and it is also beneficial to change the height of the pillow to adapt to different sleeping positions (supine position and lateral position).
Fold and edit the appropriate pillows in this paragraph.
Appropriate pillows are of great significance for prevention and treatment. Generally, the pillow height of supine is one punch, and the pillow height of lateral lying is one punch and a half, about 10 cm. The filling amount of pillow core should be appropriate to maintain a certain hardness and elasticity. Pillows with excessive elasticity are easy to cause fatigue and injury of neck muscles.
Physiological curvature straightening is actually a kind of cervical spondylosis. This requires us to subtly protect the cervical spine in our daily life and work. In this regard, it is very helpful to choose a pillow when sleeping at night, but the choice of pillow is very principled.
High curvature and low curvature are special.
Pillow height is not good for cervical hyperosteogeny. The height is suitable. The suitable height of the pillow is 6- 10 cm, and the specific size depends on everyone's physiological characteristics, especially the physiological curvature of the neck. These two different heights can ensure the normal physiological curvature of the cervical spine in supine position and lateral position, that is, the cervical spine is a straight line from the front and a forward physiological curvature from the side. In principle, sleeping on a pillow won't twist your neck.
Not too difficult.
The pillow with straight physiological curvature should be slightly soft, but without losing a certain hardness. On the one hand, it can reduce the pressure between the neck pillow and the scalp, on the other hand, it can maintain the uneven pressure and let the blood pass through the place with less pressure. As long as the cervical spondylosis pillow is slightly elastic, excessive elasticity will cause neck muscle fatigue injury.
Pillow core filler
Commonly used are: ① buckwheat shell: cheap and breathable, and the height of the pillow can be adjusted at any time.
② Pu Rong: Soft texture and good air permeability, which can be adjusted at any time.
③ Mung bean shell: not only breathable, but also cool and relieve summer heat. It is best to add a proper amount of tea or mint. The ideal pillow core with protective function should be hot-pressed sponge pillow core, which is a special pillow core with specific functions, and is generally mainly used for cervical spondylosis, cervical hyperosteogeny, snoring, insomnia and so on. This pillow core is made of high-quality sponge, which is formed by integrated measurement and electric control cutting, especially by special hot pressing treatment technology and zero pressure testing technology at high temperature. The characteristics of this method are as follows:
1, the pillow is not easy to deform: ensure that the cervical pillow is not easy to deform and has high density, and the pillow is kept at a reasonable height for a long time, thus ensuring that your cervical vertebra is always at a comfortable height during sleep, and the stability of the stiff neck or cervical joint will not be affected because the pillow is deformed or its elasticity is weakened during sleep, thus inducing or aggravating the physiological curvature straightening.
2. Always keep zero pressure during sleep: Special hot compress sponges generally need to adopt zero pressure software testing technology, and strictly control the hardness of each pillow in the production process, which can effectively dissolve the human body pressure into zero pressure, offset the reaction force, provide the most uniform and true support, and make the parts that are in contact for a long time during sleep in a stress-free state, effectively promoting blood circulation.
Preventive health care
Prevention of trauma and stiff neck
At ordinary times, it is necessary to prevent neck trauma and stiff neck, avoid cervical ligament injury, destroy the stability of cervical spine, and further induce or aggravate cervical spondylosis.
Strengthen neck exercise
Strengthening neck exercise can prevent and delay the occurrence and development of cervical diseases.
How do office workers prevent the physiological curvature of cervical spine from straightening at work?
The first point raised by experts is that the head shape is very important in the best treatment of cervical spondylosis. Try to keep a natural sitting posture, with your head slightly forward, and keep the normal physiological curve of your head, neck and chest; The height ratio between the desktop and the chair can be raised or lowered to avoid excessive backward or forward flexion of the head and neck; In addition, it is more beneficial to adjust the sitting posture by customizing an inclined working board at 10~30 degrees with the desktop.
Secondly, the head and neck should rotate around 1~2 hours, and the rotation should be gentle and slow to achieve the maximum range of motion in this direction; Or do a shoulder pinching exercise, slowly tighten your shoulders for 3~5 seconds, then stand up for 3~5 seconds and repeat for 6~8 times. The way for white-collar workers to straighten the physiological curvature of cervical spine is that everyone can also use two tables, support the desktop with their hands, fly with their feet, and tilt their heads back for 5 seconds, repeating 3~5 times.
Disease risk
1, which reduces the shock absorption effect on the head.
2. Stiff neck and limited normal activities.
3, causing chronic cervical spondylosis.
4. Causing hypertrophy of ligamentum flavum, injury of nuchal ligament and related muscle injury near vertebral body.
5, some patients will be accompanied by high blood pressure or high and low blood pressure, abdominal contraction, loss of appetite and palpitation, poor sleep and so on.
Protect the cervical spine. Let's come together.
Everyone who faces computers and TV for a long time will inevitably have cervical discomfort. For most people's lifestyles, it is necessary to prevent cervical spondylosis in advance; It is never too late to mend. Instead of waiting for a cervical vertebra injury to receive long-term and complicated treatment, it is better to take the initiative to let the cervical vertebra be carefully maintained by us.
Active temperature regulation at 7:00 a.m.
No matter in winter or summer, a comfortable temperature should be given to the cervical spine. Even for the sake of beauty, prepare a shawl in the office to protect your neck and back. If it gets cold occasionally, fry yourself a bowl of cold-dispelling soup.
10:005 minutes of cervical gymnastics
Sit up, don't move, move your head, bow your head, lift, turn left, turn right, stretch forward and then shrink; Circling clockwise and counterclockwise. Hold on for 5 minutes at a time.
14:00 Two massage methods
1. At the back of the neck, there are three Bailao points from the bottom of the skull to the upper part of the trunk. When you spare no effort to work, you might as well spend a few minutes massaging these three reaction points to immediately relieve cervical fatigue and relax the whole body.
2. Cross your hands and fingers, put them behind your neck and gently rub your neck back and forth for 50 times. After the neck is burned, you will feel very relaxed and comfortable.
/kloc-do outdoor sports at 0/8: 00.
Dinner at 20:00 will add points for tonifying the kidney.
Chinese medicine believes that walnuts, dogwood, dried land, black sesame seeds, beef bones and so on. It has the function of tonifying kidney and promoting marrow production. These materials can be added to your dinner to strengthen bones and muscles and delay the decline of kidneys and spine.
Enjoy traditional hot compress at 22:00.
Stir-fry a little fennel and 250 grams of salt, put it in a cloth bag and put it behind the neck for 30 minutes. Every day 1 time. It can improve blood circulation in the neck and back and relieve muscle spasm.