I. Maintenance
1. One third of one's life is spent in bed. The hardness of the pillow has a direct effect on the cervical spine. The best pillow should be able to support the physiological curve of the cervical spine and keep it straight. The pillow should be elastic, and the pillow core should be kapok, hollow high elastic cotton or chaff. Like to lie on your back, the height of the pillow is about 5 cm (the height after compression); I like to lie on my side, and my height is about 10 cm. In supine position, it is best to pad the lower edge of the pillow on the upper edge of the scapula to avoid making the neck empty. In fact, the real name of the pillow should be "pillow neck". Improper pillow often causes stiff neck, and repeated stiff neck is often a precursor to cervical spondylosis, so it should be diagnosed and treated in time. Also pay attention to the pillow mat, which is made of straw. One bamboo mat is too cold and the other is too hard, so it's better not to use it.
2. Keeping the neck warm The cold stimulation of the neck will make the muscles and blood vessels spasm and aggravate the neck pain. In autumn and winter, it is best to wear high-necked clothes; The weather is a little hot, so you should pay attention to prevent your neck and shoulders from catching cold when you sleep at night; In hot season, the air conditioning temperature should not be too low.
3. Correct posture The main reason for cervical spondylosis is that the posture of work and study is incorrect. Good posture can reduce fatigue and avoid injury. Bowing your head for too long will cause muscle fatigue, cervical disc aging and chronic strain, which will lead to a series of symptoms. The best posture for desk work is to keep your neck upright and lean forward slightly, and don't twist or tilt; If the working hours exceed 1 hour, you should take a break for a few minutes and do some neck exercises or massage; It is not advisable to lean your head against the bedside or sofa armrest to read or watch TV.
4. Avoiding neck injury can also induce this disease. Besides paying attention to posture, if you take a fast vehicle and encounter sudden braking, your head will be thrown forward, which will cause "whiplash-like" injury. So pay attention to protect yourself, don't doze off in the car, you can twist your body and lean forward when sitting in your seat; Cervical spine injury should be avoided in sports competitions; In the acute attack of cervical spondylosis, the activity of cervical vertebra should be reduced, especially to avoid turning around quickly, and neck brace should be used for protection if necessary.
Step 2: Exercise
Exercise of cervical vertebra should be cautious, and rapid rotation or swing without purpose should be avoided, especially in the acute stage of cervical spondylosis, vertebral artery type cervical spondylosis or cervical spondylotic myelopathy. The method we recommend is simple and easy, but to achieve the goal of preventing and treating diseases, we must persevere.
1. The head is neutral, bending forward to the limit and returning to the neutral position; Stretch back to the limit and return to the neutral position; Turn left to the limit and return to the neutral position; Turn right to the limit and return to the neutral position; The left side bends to the limit and returns to the neutral position; The right side bends to the limit and returns to the middle position. Slow down and push harder. During exercise, some patients can feel the murmur in the neck. If there is pain, they should reduce the number of exercises or stop exercising. If there is no pain, you can continue to exercise.
2. The head is in a neutral position, with hands and fingers crossed behind the neck, and the head moves back and forth slowly. At the same time, both hands vigorously resist the movement of the head and exercise the muscle strength at the back of the cervical spine.
Prevention of cervical spondylosis
To prevent cervical spondylosis, measures should be taken from both etiology and inducement to effectively reduce the incidence and prevent the recurrence of cured patients. The cervical vertebra is a part of the spine and should be prevented from the whole spine.
Prevention is one of the important contents of preventing cervical spondylosis. It is generally believed that the intervertebral disc of the spine begins to degenerate after it develops into an adult. In fact, the degree of degeneration of each intervertebral disc varies greatly from person to person. Observing from the age, Wei Zhi and others analyzed 100 asymptomatic cervical X-ray photos. The results showed that intervertebral disc degeneration and hyperosteogeny increased with age: 2/20 people in the group under 20 years old; 20~29 years old group, 2/20 people; 30~39 years old group, 4/20 people; 40~49 years old group, over 50 years old group, 16/20 people. According to Pan Zhiqing's research, infants and adolescents have the most chance of spinal trauma, so the prevention of cervical spondylosis should start from childhood. Strengthening physical exercise makes the soft tissue around the spine strong, which helps to enhance the stability of the spine. Pay more attention to preventing trauma and correcting bad posture in work and life. In addition to trauma, the common inducing factors of cervical spondylosis include stiff neck, cold, excessive fatigue, forced posture work, bad posture and other diseases. The pathogenic factors of cervical spondylosis are complex, but they can generally be divided into internal causes (internal causes) and external causes (acute and chronic trauma), which can be mutually causal. Internal cause is the foundation of disease. What we are talking about here is external cause prevention.
(1) Strictly prevent acute head, neck and shoulder injuries: head and neck falls, bumps and whiplash injuries are all prone to cervical vertebra and its surrounding soft tissue injuries, which directly or indirectly cause cervical spondylosis, and should be actively prevented. Once it happens, it should be checked and thoroughly treated. Are some injuries easy to attract people's attention, such as falling asleep in the car, encountering sudden braking and suddenly leaning back, all of which will cause whiplash injury to the cervical spine; When someone is angry, twist the child's ear at will, and the child will twist his neck to defend himself, or pat the child on the back of the head. , can cause neck muscle and its surrounding soft tissue injury; Infants and young children have underdeveloped neck muscles and soft necks. If they hold their children too early or in an inappropriate posture, it is easy to cause hyperextension cervical spine injury. Some teenagers' sports activities fail to get to the point or do not pay attention to the warm-up activities before sports, such as pushing cattle, handstand, forward rolling, neck riding and so on, which may cause sports injuries. Prevention of trauma is a powerful measure to prevent spinal degeneration. Once trauma happens, besides soft tissue injury, it is necessary to treat the dislocation of cervical facet joint in time to prevent the development of cervical spondylosis.
(2) Correcting bad posture in daily life and preventing chronic injury: Chronic strain of neck and shoulder soft tissue is the pathological basis of cervical spondylosis, and bad posture in daily life is one of the main causes of chronic strain, so correcting bad posture in daily life is of great significance for preventing cervical spondylosis. For example, some people like to lie prone and can only twist their heads to one side in order to breathe, which will cause 1~4 cervical sprain. Lateral curvature of the neck axis will lead to dizziness, headache, eyes, ears, nose and throat when decompensated. Because it destroys the normal mechanical imbalance of cervical vertebrae, it will accelerate the intervertebral disc degeneration of each cervical vertebra; Some people usually have a good posture, but when reading novels and watching TV, they are used to leaning their heads against the railing of the bed or the armrest of the sofa, causing neck flexion, back flexion and waist torsion, which will lead to instability of this section of the spine due to the injury of the intervertebral ligament of the spine; When a woman takes her child to sleep, she often lies on her side facing the child. If the pillow is out of height, the cervical and thoracic vertebrae will be in a stressed position, forming lateral curvature, which may lead to spinal diseases.
(3) Reasonable use of pillows: pillows are the protective tools for neck columns. An adult sleeps six to nine hours a day, which means every day? 0? 4~ 1~3 is spent in sleep (on the pillow), so the pillow must be suitable for the physiological requirements of the neck. After deep sleep, the neck and shoulder muscles are completely relaxed, and the normal relationship of intervertebral structure is maintained only by the elasticity of intervertebral ligament and joint capsule. If the pillow with inappropriate height is used for a long time, the cervical spine will be excessively flexed, and the ligaments and joint capsules here will be damaged by stretching, which will lead to cervical instability and joint dislocation, and then develop into cervical spondylosis. Such patients often show neck discomfort, stiff neck, dizziness, headache or intractable insomnia during sleep or after waking up in the morning. Reasonable pillow is very important for the treatment and prevention of cervical spondylosis, which cannot be replaced by drug treatment, but it should be applied for a long time. A reasonable pillow must have two items: scientific height and comfortable hardness. Scholars at home and abroad attach great importance to the height of pillows and put forward a variety of data. Our research suggests that pillows should not be too high or too low. Most people use their own jaw-shoulder line (the distance from the mandibular angle to the acromion) or the transverse diameter of the palm as the height of lateral or supine position, which is suitable for most people; A few people need proper high pillows, such as spinous process dysplasia and kissing spines. Too low a pillow will aggravate the symptoms. Pillows should have appropriate elasticity or plasticity, not too hard, kapok or chaff is better, and can form a saddle shape after application.
Good sleeping posture is very important for the health care of the spine. The trunk, shoulders and pelvis of the human body have large transverse diameters. When lying on your side, your spine bends due to the influence of the mattress. If you lie on your side for a long time, your spine will gradually bend sideways. If you wake up lightly, your back will be stiff and uncomfortable, and you need to get up and exercise to return to normal. In severe cases, you may suffer from spinal diseases. Sleep should be mainly supine, supplemented by lateral lying, alternating left and right, and the left and right knee joints are slightly flexed when lying on the side. Prone, half-lying, half-lying, or twisting up and down to sleep are all bad sleeping positions, which should be corrected in time. Put your head in the center of the pillow to prevent stiff neck. Patients with spinal diseases should use wooden beds, and spring beds are not conducive to the physiological balance of the spine.
(4) Prevention of chronic strain: Due to work needs, some types of work need special posture or work in forced posture for a long time. If we don't pay attention to it, it is prone to chronic strain and gradually develop into spinal diseases. For example, people who look at microscopes for a long time, tunnel workers, accountants, sewing and embroiderers, dentists, airplane mechanics, typists, telegraphers and other workers who bend their necks, twist their necks and shrug their shoulders, and people who study at their desks for a long time, if they do not pay attention to the height of desks and chairs to adapt to their bodies, and they do not pay attention to the balanced movement after work (posture opposite to the working posture, such as stretching at their desks) to prevent chronic strain, except for
Sleeping in the car and braking suddenly are easy to cause cervical spine injury, so try to prevent it. Swimming in shallow water often causes serious cervical injuries, so diving should be in deep water.
(5) Prevention of the elderly: Most elderly people over 50 years old have degenerative changes in their spine, so more attention should be paid to the prevention of spinal diseases. Pillows must meet personal specifications (healthy pillows are divided into five specifications: extra large, large, medium, small and extra small, and men use the same number of pillows according to their personal shirt numbers; Ladies use smaller pillows according to the size of their shirts), and they should pay attention to using pillows at home or out; When the weather is cold, pay attention to the warmth of the neck and waist, and reduce bad postures such as necking, shrugging and bending. In winter, we should pay attention to prevent the neck and shoulders from catching cold, especially when sleeping, to avoid stiff neck, cervical spondylosis and scapulohumeral periarthritis caused by cold stimulation. When talking to people, watching TV, watching movies or reading newspapers, you should try to look at them positively and don't bend your neck too much. In short, it is necessary to maintain the normal physiological curvature and integrity of the spine and prevent cervical spondylosis caused by poor posture.
In recent years, studies at home and abroad have proved that cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases and chronic diseases that endanger the lives of middle-aged and elderly people are related to the spine. Therefore, as an elderly person, it can also prevent hypertension, coronary heart disease, arrhythmia and cerebrovascular diseases. The most active way to treat diseases is to nip in the bud, especially in the era of increasing therapeutic drugs, and it is particularly important to attach importance to preventive medical education.