3 seconds!
What kind of disease is the most excruciating?
3、2、1！
Guess what?
It is shoulder, neck and back pain!
Also known as spinal disease, it is all spinal disease.
The Lancet is a tally of the global burden of disease, with low back pain in first place [1].
(The human year of survival with disabilities is an indicator of the burden of disease.) Source: Lancet)
As you read this, about 18% of people worldwide are experiencing low back pain and 8% are experiencing neck pain. That is, 1 in 4 people suffers from spinal disorders [1,2].
Extrapolating further, 350 million Chinese are suffering from spinal diseases...
(Source: Made your own)
Previously, spinal disorders were more common among middle-aged and elderly people and manual workers. But nowadays, young people and even teenagers are getting more and more [3].
Why?
The reason is simple.
At this moment, you are most likely doing this.
After looking at the phone for a long time, does your neck hurt? Acid?
If so, take a look at what your cervical spine has been through.
Adults generally weigh about 5 kilograms on their heads, and when they look down at their phones, the weight of their cervical spine increases significantly.
The greater the angle at which the head leans forward, the greater the weight of the cervical spine:
When leaning forward by 30 °, the weight of the cervical spine is about 18 kg;
At 60° forward, the cervical spine bears 27 kg [3,4].
When you look down at your phone, it's equivalent of 5 10-pound watermelons tied around your neck!
The cervical spine does not hurt!
There are also some occupations that require sedentary and long-term bowing, such as programmers, editors, drivers, accountants, teachers, doctors, etc., and the neck, chest, waist, and back are in a state of high pressure tension every day. Over time, the normal physiological curvature of the spine slowly changes.
The spine consists of 26 vertebrae.
These vertebral bodies are connected through ligaments, muscles, joints, intervertebral discs, etc., forming a "backbone bone".
Our "backbone" has 4 physiological bends, namely neck bend, chest bend, waist bend and sacral curvature, which vary in direction.
Physiological bending gives the body soft lines, as well as functions such as weight bearing, cushioning shock absorption, protection and movement.
The spine is hollow, enveloping the spinal cord, nerves, and blood vessels that travel from the brain to innervate the sensations and movements of the limbs, as well as the function of urinating and urinating.
Structural damage to the vertebral body, intervertebral discs, ligaments, muscles, spinal cord, nerves, can lead to spinal disease.
Let's take the example of a herniated disc.
A normal disc is formed by a ring of fibers that wraps the nucleus pulposus in the middle.
The nucleus pulposus contains more water, with a water content of about 90% in infants and young children, about 75% in adults, and only about 50% in the elderly [3].
If the water content is low, it is a degenerating intervertebral disc.
Under the torture of sitting for a long time, poor sitting posture, etc., the fibrous ring may rupture, and the middle nucleus pulposus "slips out" from the inside, compressing the nerves next to it, causing pain and numbness in the lower limbs.
There is a cold knowledge that must tell you that normal intervertebral discs are painless. It is the largest bloodless, nerve-free tissue in the whole body. Just like hair and nails, cutting hair and nails will not hurt.
However, in the degenerated intervertebral disc, the nerves and blood vessels will grow into the intervertebral disc, causing pain.
When the muscles of the neck and the old waist are strained, the intervertebral discs of the neck and waist, and the ligaments connected to them degenerate, which will cause pain in the neck and back, and in severe cases, numbness and limited movement of hands and feet will occur.
At the most serious point, paralysis, fecal incontinence, etc. may occur, which is not a joke.
There are many types of spinal disorders, and treatment requires "the right medicine".
According to the etiology, it can be divided into non-specific and specific spinal disorders.
The so-called non-specificity is that the cause is not clear, do not know why the disease. Clinically, 85% of neck and back pain cannot be found. Orthopedic surgeons often say, "The patient has low back pain, the doctor has a headache" [1,2].
Of course, if you can't find the cause, you can also treat the symptoms, so that you can be less painful, while preventing the condition from worsening.
Doctors first use conservative treatments, such as wearing a neck pad or waist circumference, to restrict the movement of the cervical or lumbar spine.
It can also be combined with drugs, such as anti-inflammatory painkillers, muscle relaxants, etc.
Physiotherapy and massage treatments can also be tried, but go to the physiotherapy department of a regular hospital instead of a massage shop on the street!
Specific spinal diseases, as you must have guessed, spinal diseases caused by some special causes, of which cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis are the most common.
1. In cervical spondylosis, the most common are radiculotype and spinal cord type
The main manifestations of the radicular type are numbness and pain in the upper extremities, which can generally be relieved after conservative treatment.
The spinal cord type mainly compresses the spinal cord, causing dysfunction of both lower limbs, such as unstable walking and urinary dysfunction. Prompt surgery is required, otherwise, irreversible damage to the spinal cord may occur.
2. Lumbar disc herniation, most of which do not require surgical treatment, can be relieved or cured by conservative treatment
If long-term conservative treatment is ineffective and has a great impact on quality of life, the intervertebral disc that compresses the nerve can be removed surgically.
But after removing the disc, the lumbar spine becomes unstable, like a part of the block being removed from the middle of the set-up block.
Doctors should restore stability to the lumbar spine by beating steel nails and other methods, which is medically called "fusion internal fixation".
There are also specific spinal disorders caused by trauma (such as falling from height or car accidents), tumors (such as breast cancer metastasis to the spine), infections (such as Brucella infection, which occurs mainly in pastoral areas and frequent contact with cattle and sheep). These diseases are more complex and require doctors to develop appropriate treatment plans according to the cause.
It is worth emphasizing that in either case, doctors will first recommend conservative treatment, and if it is ineffective, surgery will be considered. As soon as you come up, let you do surgery, you have to keep an eye on oh~
Pay attention to the following points in life to protect your spine:
1. Improve poor work and living habits
Use your phone less and avoid reading, watching TV, or playing with your phone in bed.
When using electronic products, keep your eyes level with the screen, or look up slightly at 5 to 10 degrees, and take a break every 1 hour.
Avoid working with your head down for a long time, and do "two more and one less" during work, that is, "look up more, do more activities, and bow your head less".
Avoid wind chills and humidity, avoid being too cold in summer, and avoid direct blowing from electric fans.
2. Usually do neck and waist exercises
(Seated neck stretch Source: do it yourself)
(One-handed side pressure exercise Source: do it yourself)
(Floor swimming posture Source: do it yourself)
(Leaning over and turning Source: do it yourself)
(Four-way nod Source: do it yourself)
(Five-point support Source: do it yourself)
(Xiao Yanfei Source: made by yourself)
3. Pay attention to the sleeping position and avoid high pillows or no pillows
The length of the pillow should exceed the width of your shoulders by 10 to 15 cm. The height is compressed, equal to or slightly lower than the height of one's own punch.
However, the physiological curvature of each person's cervical spine is different and cannot be generalized. You can try a few more pillows on a punch-high basis. As long as you sleep soundly, you will not fall asleep because the pillow is not suitable, frequently fall on the pillow or have neck discomfort, it is the right pillow for you.
4. Avoid trauma
Sudden sharp braking when driving at high speed can easily lead to hyperextension injury to the cervical spine, also known as "whiplash injury".
Driving, remember not to speed, do not drive a gas car, pay attention to driving safety. If you are in a car, do more ideological work for the driver and fasten your seat belt.
Finally, let's share, watch, and collect three!
Review expert: Tan Mingsheng | chief physician of the Department of Orthopedics of China-Japan Friendship Hospital
bibliography
[1]. Popescu A, Lee H. Neck Pain and Lower Back Pain. Med Clin North Am. 2020 Mar;104(2):279-292.
[2]. Global, regional, and national incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability for 328 diseases and injuries for 195 countries, 1990–2016: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2016. Lancet. 2017 Sep 16; 390(10100): 1211–1259.
[3]. Namwongsa S, Puntumetakul R, Neubert MS, Boucaut R. Effect of neck flexion angles on neck muscle activity among smartphone users with and without neck pain. Ergonomics. 2019 Dec;62(12):1524-1533.
[4].https://time.com/3595976/spine-phone/
[5]. Sacco IC, Pereira IL, Dinato RC, Silva VC, Friso B, Viterbo SF. The effect of pillow height on muscle activity of the neck and mid-upper back and patient perception of comfort. J Manipulative Physiol Ther. 2015 Jul-Aug;38(6):375-81
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