Osteochondrosis: treatment, symptoms, signs, causes

Here is another pathology that is considered age related but often occurs unrelated to age.

For example this fact: more than half of the patients with osteochondrosis worldwide noticed the first signs of their development by the age of 25 years. Yes, nobody would have thought that old age could come so quickly. . . Some feel these years are ripe, some are more used to pushing them close to puberty, and some do not seem to be a cause for malaise. But everyone firmly agrees that there is no age for the aging process, to say the least.

What is the problem? In reality it is complex and may seem complicated to a layperson. But in reality there is nothing complicated about it. In the section on the herniated disc, we said that its contents are water with proteins dissolved in it, right? So all osteochondrosis, along with its rate, severity and treatment prognosis, is actually built on these proteins. What do we mean? Now everything becomes clear.

The proteins in the "filling" for the intervertebral disc are called glycosaminoglycans. Perhaps we don't need to remember this name.

But it is important to remember that the main purpose of glycosaminated dicans is to retain water. In addition, with the possibility of gradual release under pressure. In other words, the proteins that make up the jelly-like texture of the "filler" for the disc are made in such a way that the water in it is heated when at rest and gradually pushed out under load.

Of course, water itself is too liquid to do such a thing. That is why the body synthesizes special proteins - unique! Analog of food gelling agents such as carrageenan, gum, starch.

In order for the contents of the intervertebral disc (and it is, as we remember, the basis of its dampening properties) to remain in order, we need a lifetime:

• monitor what we eat to avoid deficiencies in vital substances, especially proteins;
• avoid muscle spasms in the back;
• Maintaining an active circulation of cerebrospinal fluid and blood in it to normalize metabolic processes in the tissues of the spine;
• avoid injuries and infections of the tissues of the spine;
• Maintaining the water-salt metabolism in the body.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis

At the very beginning, our back will begin to "tap dance" to the rhythm of each of our movements. However, this crunch can only be heard for a long time. In the future there will be a time of sensations - constant pulling, aching pain and discomfort in the areas affected by osteochondrosisThey become noticeable at rest and gradually increase with movement. Subjectively, patients find that the affected joints tire more quickly than others. Accordingly, the more tired they feel, the more painful the pain.

But of course that is by no means the end of the process, although it is no longer the beginning. After all, the condition of the intervertebral disc does not improve, and the condition of the cartilage deteriorates as the situation progresses and very quickly. Over time, the crunches themselves become painful.

Each of these noises is now accompanied by a dull ache both at the place of its occurrence and in nearby tissues of all kinds. It seems to propagate as an extended painful wave from a point in the joint - exactly according to the laws of resonance.

Symptoms of cervical osteochondrosis

When we have problems with the cervical spine, we can feel:

• Headache resistant to standard treatment - dull, aching, throbbing, constant, evenly distributed over the entire head. It coincides with an increase in neck pain and is similar to a headache that occurs with increases in blood pressure. As a rule, excessive pressure in osteochondrosis leads to a headache;
• Unmotivated attacks of dizziness throughout the day: with sudden changes in posture, head movements, tremors. Dizziness often coincides with the rhythm of breathing - a dangerous "lightness" in the head occurs with every inhalation and disappears when exhaling. Such symptomatology means that the intracranial pressure is reduced at the moment, and not excessive, as in the previous example. As a rule, these two symptoms are observed alternately in all patients with cervical osteochondrosis, occur periodically and last for several days. Sometimes one replaces the other, sometimes they are separated by periods of relative pressure;
• aching pain in the neck, especially at the base of the skull. At the initial stage, it is manifested by a vague discomfort during the day and a crunch when turning the head. But touching the spine in this area or trying to massage the muscles leads to sore muscles and stiffness of the muscle fiber. Afterwards the pain is permanent and increases with turning the head to the side, bending to the chest, after sleeping on a high or too soft pillow;
• aching pains in the chest (as under the ribs), under the shoulder blade, with return to the shoulder and upper pectoral muscles. It resembles an attack of angina or coronary artery disease, as does pain from a herniated disc, but is more permanent. In diseases of the cardiovascular system, for example, the pain rarely lasts longer than a few hours and is little dependent on the breathing rhythm. In osteochondrosis it is constant, worsens with every breath, lasts up to several days or more;
• "Lumbago" along the entire shoulder line, often to the fingertips. As a rule, depending on the progression of the osteochondrosis, the patient either suffers from brief "lumbago" at the shoulder joint or from numbness attacks and persistent acute "lumbago" along the entire inner surface of the shoulder joint of the arm. The injury to the small neurons of the shoulder is not noticeable at rest, but is greatly aggravated with the first movements of the head after a long immobility. Patients describe it as "electrical discharges along the spine, in the shoulder muscles. And radiation in the hand is often accompanied by a spasm of the muscles of the wrist and a violation of the sensitivity of the ring finger, as well as the little finger;
• Quite often, but in less than half of all cases of cervical osteochondrosis, the sensitivity and mobility of the tongue decrease. Patients may not be able to distinguish between some flavors (bitter, sour, sweet cannot be recognized, but it is easy to name a mixed taste). Some people report changes in diction, especially when it is necessary to speak quickly and / or clearly.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis of the chest region

Signs of thoracic osteochondrosis:

• aching, drawing pain in the chest, "somewhere under the ribs". In contrast to coronary artery disease, it is difficult for the patient to pinpoint his center more precisely. Such pain depends largely on the breathing rhythm - it increases when you inhale and when you cough. And for all the uncertainty of its location in the chest, each of these attacks clearly reverberates in the causal eddies / vertebrae. In 99 out of 100 cases, it is the displaced vertebra that hurts the most;
• disorders of the sensitivity and mobility of the pulmonary diaphragm - the appearance of a feeling of incomplete inhalation, inability to perform the lower exhalation;
• Pain and discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract - especially common in the stomach, upper intestines, liver and pancreas. The pain can range from mild, inaudible discomfort to obvious cramps. Therefore, osteochondrosis of the chest region is often confused with sluggish gastritis, enteritis, colitis, and chronic pancreatitis.

Symptoms of lumbar osteochondrosis

Lumbar osteochondrosis, also called lumbago (so we know they are one and the same thing) is the most common form of the condition.

With him we have:

• Aching pain in the lower back, aggravated by bending over, sitting or standing for long periods of time - in general, almost any body movement. As a rule, it bothers patients at night when they have the habit of sleeping on their back with their legs straight. It only subsides after a long stay or the habit of sleeping in the fetal position. That is, with your knees tucked into your chest. Patients with lumbar osteochondrosis quickly and voluntarily switch from a soft bed to a hard one, as it is easier to maintain the position of the embryo on a hard floor throughout the night;
• lumbar stiffness syndrome. It implies: the inability to bend quickly after long periods of standing or sitting, which is less associated with pain than with a general decrease in muscle extensibility and bone stiffness in the affected area; rapidly progressive numbness in the lumbar region when sitting or standing, associated with acute damage to the nerve endings in this position of the vertebrae;
• Entrapment of the sciatic nerve (the main nerve trunk for the legs that enters the spine in the coccyx area). With osteochondrosis of the lumbosacral region, it is one of the series of sciatic scenarios, though not the only one. Despite the existence of several other variants, sciatica is often a painful complication of osteochondrosis.

Treatment of osteochondrosis

We will need treatment for a long time, so let's improve the quality of life on our own back first.

1. Let's take the feather bed and the feather pillow out of bed. Let's leave a main mattress, let's get an orthopedic pillow - dense, low, with a solid recess in the middle. Typically these pillows are made of upholstery polyester. Therefore, you need to be careful that it is not too soft - now it is harmful to us. And the likelihood of it being "blown away" and turning into a flat pancake in a week is very high. The thickness of the roll on the edges should be equal to the length of our neck from the base of the skull to the 7th vertebra, which protrudes when the head is tilted. If it's 1. 5-2 cm lower, the better.
2. We will buy another pillow that is not too thick or use our old nib in a new quality. From now on, we must always place this pillow under our thighs or buttocks in the supine position, as well as under the upper knee when sleeping in the fetal position. Let's experiment with the optimal height, width and position of the pillow - the right one, placed in the right place, will instantly make the pain in that particular position disappear in the most noticeable focus.
3. Lifting and carrying objects over 10 kg is strictly prohibited in osteochondrosis. Therefore, every training session with us should take place with your own weight or with a minimum weight. With any type of osteochondrosis, it is wiser for us not to do this alone, but to go to the gym. It's at the gym because cardio (treadmill, bike, skiing) and fitness are not the same thing. We now absolutely have to support our backs and work with the same, correct posture. The best for such purposes is a simulator - a steel frame in which both we and the weight to be lifted can move only in an amplitude limited by the structure.
4. After every exertion (including normal walking upright), we should do a light massage of the back and gently stretch it. Heat can be used in areas with particularly severe back pain - provided, of course, that the focus of pain does not move with the change in posture. And since pain migration is a common phenomenon in osteochondrosis, sometimes a simple "five minute" session on a mat like the Lyapko applicator proves five times more effective than any heating pad. After all, we can't buy a warming mattress instead! In addition, in the warm season there is a risk that heating such a large area will end in heat stroke. . .

When we understand all this, take it into account and are sure that we will not forget it, we organize the activation of metabolic processes for our spine. As mentioned earlier, if you have osteochondrosis, you shouldn't exercise at home. More precisely, you shouldn't get carried away by it - it's better to work with a professional orthopedic surgeon or an instructor, where there are devices that can compensate for the strength deficits in our spine. Unfortunately, since not everyone has such an option, we still dare to recommend some warm-up exercises with a reduced likelihood of complications.

There is only one rule here that should not be broken. Namely: if we have decided to take everything into our own hands, it is imperative that we order or buy a special medical bandage or corset before training. A bandage for the reliable fixation of precisely that part of the back where there is a pathological process. You should just work in it and give the problematic section of the spine some support that it currently lacks.

So:

1. We will sit close to the table, the lid of which would have been on our stomachs, on a chair with a narrow and high back. We need to firmly support both the back and the back of the head. Let's lean back on the back of the chair with our whole back, stretch our arms and slide them as far as possible along the lid. It is even necessary to loosen up a little and push the shoulder blades forward, but for this it is forbidden to tear off the back of the head or back from the support. An object weighing more than 10 kg should be placed on the line on which our palms remain in this position. Its shape and surface should be pleasant, as we then have to take this object slightly from below with our palms and pull it towards us without lifting it off the surface. You don't have to move it so much with your hands, but with the exertion of the shoulder blade muscles, which are now trying to return the forearms, which have been stretched forward, back to their normal position. As you can see, it is a "domesticated" and slightly adapted rowing machine for our needs. More precisely, its modification, which implies a simple gain in weight on itself. In any case, this exercise develops the muscles of the back - between the shoulder blades as well as the lats- good. After pulling the weight towards us, it should be shifted backwards and the pull should be repeated 15 more times.
2. Let's stand close to the familiar table and place our pelvic bones on the edge of the lid. Let's put our hands behind our heads, drop our heads so that our foreheads rest on the table. At the same time, the back should not be rounded - we will round it off later. For now, our job is to make 15 bends to the table itself with your back straight and hands on the back of your head. Correct posture means that in the future, when we fall on the table, we will be our whole face, not our forehead. Hence, we should linger over the lid itself and not rely on it.
3. We'll use one of the exercises outlined in the Back Disease Prevention section. Namely: we are lying on the floor with our arms stretched out over our heads, our stretched legs folded together. Lift one (any) arm off the floor and at the same time stretch it forward, as well as the opposite leg. Of course, instead of trying to throw your leg over your head, you should pull it back with a kick. Then lower your limbs, count to three in your head, and repeat with another pair of hand-to-leg legs. In total, you need to do 20 repetitions for both pairs of limbs.
4. We sit on the floor with our backs to the wall, legs stretched out in front of us. Don't rest our backs too tightly against the wall and place our palms securely on the floor. Now we need to lift the body as high as possible off the floor with one hand. It is better to keep your legs straight while maintaining your sitting position. If straight lines don't work, you can try pressing them against your chest. In this case, you need to take into account that changing the position of the legs will shift the center of gravity, and you will need to lean your head against the wall. Repeat 5-7 times.
5. We get a special belt for weightlifting - wide, made of thick skin, which perfectly fixes the lower back. In the case of milder forms of osteochondrosis, it is entirely possible to leave only the bandage in place to fix the affected area. In the bathroom, take a 15 liter basin or bucket that we use on the farm. We fill it with water so that it does not splash over the edges, we take it in a free place. Dishes with water should be placed on the floor, legs slightly apart and bent. Knees for stability, move the body slightly forward. We should get a very ambiguous pose - a slight forward bend, with the buttocks set back noticeably, but an even line of the spine in the upper body. From the point of view of the anatomy of the human body, this is completely normal and correct. When the desired position is reached, we should still sit down until we can grasp the handles of the pelvis without rounding the back. Then the pelvis must be raised and the knees and lower back straightened in a synchronized movement.

As mentioned above, self-massage is more intuitively easier to understand for most people because they rely on the sensations. And we advise you to simply regularly (daily) conduct an independent session with a massager to find out the structural features of your back, with all its pathologies and proportions. Still, there are no two identical spins in the world. No masseur or doctor will study this organ better than us. Individual details of the structure of our back can be extremely important here. Especially when only part of the spine is affected or the damage includes "aggravating circumstances" in the sense of curvature, hernias, malformations.

Still, here are some recommendations about the nuances of massage of different departments. In fact, in the original they are only known to experts and are often omitted from the popular presentation of massage techniques. So:

In cervical osteochondrosis, both muscle types are affected equally often and severely. Therefore, a regular, even if deep massage does not always bring the hoped-for relief to the patient. After all, the shoulder girdle is the most massive on the whole body, and nowhere is the skeletal muscles "hidden" as deeply as it is here.

And in order to be fully satisfied with the result, we will consider several provisions that will make it easier for you to get to them:

• When massaging painful deltoids, the easiest way to "reach" their outer edge is to press your finger from above into the recess between the collarbone and the "bumps" of the shoulder joint. You shouldn't be pressing your finger too hard - there. In addition to the muscle, there are also the ligaments of the shoulder. However, if we knead the stiff head of the muscle, we will begin to distinguish more precisely between its soft fiber and the resilient ligamentous apparatus. It is necessary to work exclusively with a soft head and knead it with rotary movements. Then you can go up along the shoulder line and 2-3 cm upwards, continuing to work from above;
• the inner edge of the deltoid muscle (the most problematic shoulder muscle in everyday life) is attached to the 7th vertebra. He is stronger than others when, as they say, we tilt our head towards our chest. But under the head of the deltoid there is a number of skeletal muscles that are completely protected from manipulation from above. Meanwhile, the lion's share of osteochondrosis "discharges" go through their fibers. Therefore, we have to lie on our back on a soft surface.

The middle of the back will give us fewer problems with the number of muscle fibers themselves. However, their design is very complex - in the sense that most of the muscle heads here are not attached to the edges of the bones, but rather go underneath, so to speak. This is especially true of the shoulder blades, where all the muscles of the middle are attached to one side, but none of these attachments are directly on the edge of the bone or above:

• if we are tormented by burning or stabbing pains "somewhere under the shoulder blade", it does not matter whether it is observed above, below or even in the middle of the shoulder blade. The fact is that we cannot reach these places in the usual lying position. We have to lie down so that the hand being massaged hangs freely from the bed and lies on the floor. The working hand is always the opposite and should be tightly wound from above, behind the back of the head. Inconvenient but effective. It is better to massage the midsection under the shoulder blade with a hard massager - we will barely grasp with our fingers, and therefore we will not be able to press. To increase reach, a pillow can be placed under the elbow of the working hand;
• how to stretch the upper corners of the latissimus dorsi and put your hand on it, even the genius of acrobatics will not be able to. The lats are the muscles that allow bodybuilders, and the physically well-developed person in general, to demonstrate the classic V-shaped extension of the back from the torso to the shoulders. It is on them that the rowing machine develops well - the pulling of heavy objects to the chest. They are located on the upper back and strictly on the sides. The value of the developed lats for the strength of the arms and lower back cannot be overestimated, so they not only need to be developed, but also monitored for their condition. In addition, the vast majority of people do not follow them at all, and very rarely are they used directly in normal life. For the lats massage, it is better to take a lying position on your side. In this case, for reasons of stability, the legs should be pulled closer to the stomach, the working hand should be pulled forward along the lying surface and placed under the armpit of the arm to be massaged. For the sake of convenience, the hand to be massaged does not have to be kept lowered to the side; it is more practical to lower it on the bed at chest level. Then the lower edge of the shoulder blade expands after it and the lats are instantly attached to it.

The lumbar area has its own structural features. On the one hand, the same row of small skeletal muscles runs along the spine that move the vertebrae when turning. Second, many muscles coming from above are attached to the sacrum at this point. That is, connecting the lower back to the upper - in fact, you can maintain and maintain the speed of the S-shaped back curve throughout life. By the way, for this reason, weakness in the middle of the back (scoliosis) is often accompanied by a curvature of the lower back - lordosis and kyphosis. The main muscle of the lumbar spine is the lats. Without their health, we won't see a normal S-shaped curve as our ears. And the sacrum and tailbone will just keep hurting us even without osteochondrosis.

So let's start:

• It should be remembered that the latissimus dorsi muscle runs sharply obliquely: its upper edge is attached to the lower part of the shoulder blade, and the lower - to the sacrum, that is, to the coccyx. So when we walk along the side with our fingers or a massager straight from the armpit, we knead a muscle that is equally connected to the back and the abdomen - the oblique abdominal muscle. This is not the latissimus that connects the lower back to the shoulder - the oblique muscle is responsible for strictly tilting the body to one side. Above all, to successfully straighten up from this inclination. She suffers badly from scoliosis and pelvic lesions. Its main section, for us, is the lower one, near the thigh bone. There are two heads that attach it to the tibia joint. One is closer to the buttocks (merging with its topmost lobe), and the second goes slightly forward into the groin area. So if we get into the habit of massaging the entire area around the protrusions of the pelvic bones, it definitely won't become redundant;
• If, for some reason (mostly pain), we decide to warm up our buttocks, it is better to do it on your side and press our knees to your chest. In this position, all gluteal muscles are available for the massage. For the first time, the buttocks can appear very painful to us and as if they are entirely made of tendon tissue - it will feel so tight. In reality, they shouldn't be like that - it's a cramp. It is particularly noticeable in the upper lobes and in the middle part. Usually, in the center of the buttocks, the finger should be freely pressed to the depth of a phalanx - the arrangement of the gluteal muscles is no less than the arrangement of the shoulder muscles. This is what we need to accomplish without paying attention to burning pain.