Osteochondrosis: treatment, symptoms, signs, causes

Here is another pathology that is considered age-related, but often has nothing to do with age.

For example, this fact: more than half of patients with osteochondrosis worldwide saw the first signs of its development at the age of 25. Yes, no one could have imagined that old age could come so quickly. . . Some see these years as adults, some are more accustomed to attributing them to adolescence, and for some, the age of 60 does not seem to be a reason to feel bad. But everyone will firmly agree that the aging process, to put it mildly, is not yet one year old.

What is the problem? In fact, it is multifaceted and can seem complicated to a layman. But in fact there is nothing complicated about it. In the section on spinal hernias, we said that the proteins in it are dissolved water, right? Thus, all osteochondrosis, along with prognosis of speed, severity, and treatment, is actually built on these proteins. What do we mean? Now everything will be clear.

The proteins in the "filling" for the intervertebral disc are called glycosaminoglycans. Maybe you don't need to remember that name.

However, we must remember that the main purpose of glycosaminated dikans is to retain water. Moreover, with the possibility of gradual release under pressure. In other words, the proteins that create the jelly-like texture of the "filler" for the disk are prepared in such a way that the water inside is heated at rest, and gradually squeezed under load.

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

We need the contents of the intervertebral disc (and remember that it is the basis of its cushioning properties) to remain in order throughout life:

• control what we eat to avoid a lack of essential nutrients, especially protein;
• avoid back muscle cramps;
• to maintain active circulation of spinal fluid and blood in it to normalize metabolic processes in the tissues of the spine;
• to prevent damage and infection of spinal tissues;
• maintain the rate of water-salt metabolism in the body.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis

So, at the very beginning, with the beat of each of our movements, our backs will begin to "tap-dancing". But for a long time, this crisis can only be heard. In the future, there will be a period of sensations - constant pulling, aching pains and discomfort in the areas affected by osteochondrosis. They feel at rest and gradually increase with movement. Subjectively, patients report that the joints affected by the process get tired faster than others. Accordingly, as the feeling of fatigue intensifies, so does the aching pain.

But this is certainly far from the end of the process, although it is no longer the beginning. After all, the condition of the disc does not improve, and the condition of the cartilage worsens as the condition progresses and very quickly. Over time, the crunches themselves become painful.

Each such sound is now accompanied by a dull burst of pain, both where it is seen and in any nearby tissue. It appears to spread like a wide painful wave from one point of the joint - exactly according to the laws of resonance.

Symptoms of cervical osteochondrosis

If 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. This coincides with an increase in neck pain and is similar to headaches caused by increases in blood pressure. As a rule, very high blood pressure with osteochondrosis causes headaches;
• Attacks of unexplained dizziness during the day: sudden changes in posture, head movements, tremors. Often dizziness coincides with the rhythm of breathing - at first, a dangerous "lightness" appears with each inhalation and disappears during exhalation. Such symptomatology means that at this point the intracranial pressure decreases and is not as high 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 separated by periods of relative pressure;
• aching pain in the neck, especially at the base of the skull. In the early stages, it is expressed by a crisis of uncertain anxiety and dizziness during the day. But touching the spine or trying to massage the muscles in this area causes pain and stiffness in the muscle fibers. The pain is then persistent, increasing after turning the head to the side, bending the chest, and lying on a high or very soft pillow;
• aching pains in the chest (as under the ribs), under the scapula, returning to the shoulder and upper chest muscles. They are similar to an attack of angina pectoris or coronary artery disease, much like the pain in a herniated disc, but are more permanent. For example, in diseases of the cardiovascular system, pain rarely lasts more than a few hours and is less dependent on the respiratory rhythm. Stable with osteochondrosis, aggravated by each breath, lasting up to several days or more;
• "Lumbago" along the entire line of the shoulder, often up to the fingertips. As a rule, depending on the degree of development of osteochondrosis, the patient also suffers from a short-term "lumbago" in the shoulder joint, or a long-term acute "lumbago" with numbness along the entire inner surface. stayAs for the disruption of the small neurons of the shoulder, it does not feel at rest, but after a long inactivity is aggravated by the first movements of the head. Patients describe it as "electrical discharges along the spine, in the muscles of the shoulders. Hand radiation is often accompanied by spasm of the wrist muscles and impaired sensitivity of the ring finger, as well as the little finger;
• quite often, although in less than half of all cases, cervical osteochondrosis, decreased sensitivity and mobility of the tongue. Patients cannot distinguish some tastes (they do not recognize bitter, sour, sweet, but it is easy to call a mixed taste). Some people report changes in diction, especially when they need to speak quickly and / or clearly.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis of the thoracic region

Symptoms of thoracic osteochondrosis:

• aching, aching in the chest, "somewhere under the ribs. "Unlike coronary heart disease, the patient has difficulty identifying its center more accurately. Such pain depends significantly on the rhythm of breathing - it increases with inspiration and coughing. And despite all the uncertainty of its location in the chest, each such attack is clearly reflected in the vertebrae / vertebrae. Out of 100 out of 99, the most painful is the displaced vertebra;
• disorders of sensitivity and motility of the pulmonary diaphragm - a feeling of incomplete inhalation, inability to perform low exhalation;
• Pain and discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract - especially often in the stomach, upper intestines, liver and pancreas. The pain can range from mild, inaudible discomfort to obvious cramps. Therefore, osteochondrosis of the breast is often mistaken for slow gastritis, enteritis, colitis, chronic pancreatitis.

Symptoms of lumbar osteochondrosis

Lumbar osteochondrosis, also called lumbago (we know it is one and the same), is the most common form of the disease.

We will have it with him:

• Painful pain in the lower back is exacerbated by bending, sitting for long periods of time, or standing on one's feet - in general, almost any body movement. As a rule, at night patients are worried if they have the habit of lying on their backs with their legs straightened. Decreased only by the habit of staying for a long time or sleeping in a fetal position. That is, pressing the knees to the chest. Patients with lumbar osteochondrosis quickly and voluntarily move from a soft bed to a hard bed because it is easier to keep the embryo in a hard floor overnight;
• lumbar stiffness syndrome. This includes: inability to bend quickly after standing or sitting for long periods of time, not with pain, but with a general decrease in the ability of the muscles to stretch and the stiffness of the bones in the affected area; rapidly advancing numbness in the lumbar region when sitting or standing due to a sharp disruption of the nerve endings in this position of the vertebrae;
• sciatic nerve occlusion (main nerve trunk for the legs, enters the spine in the coccyx). With osteochondrosis of the lumbar-sacral region, it belongs to a number of sciatic scenarios, though not alone. Although there are several other options, sciatica is often a painful complication of osteochondrosis.

Treatment of osteochondrosis

We will have to receive treatment for a long time, so first of all we will improve the quality of life of our backs.

1. Removing the feather bed and feather pillow from the bed. Leave a basic mattress, get an orthopedic pillow - tight, low, with a stable depression in the middle. Typically, these pillows are made of padding polyester. Therefore, you need to make sure that it is not too soft - it is now harmful to us. And the probability of "blowing" into a flat pancake in a week is very high. The thickness of the roll along the edges should be equal to the length of our neck up to the 7th vertebra, which emerges when the head is bent from the base of the skull. If it is 1, 5-2 cm lower, one is so good.
2. We will buy another pillow that is not too thick or we will use our old hair in a new quality. After that, we will always have to put this pillow under the thighs or hips in an extended position, as well as below the knee while lying in the fetal position. Let's experiment with the optimal height, width and position of the pillow - the right thing placed in the right place will cause the pain to disappear immediately in the most noticeable focus in this particular position.
3. It is strictly forbidden to lift or carry any object weighing more than 10 kg during osteochondrosis. Therefore, any training should be with us on your own or with a minimum weight. With any type of osteochondrosis, it is wiser not to do it ourselves, but to go to the gym. He is in the gym because cardio (jogging, cycling, skiing) and fitness are not the same. We must now, in any case, provide additional support to our backs and work with the same, correct body position. The best simulator for such purposes is a steel frame in which both we and the lifted weight can move at an amplitude limited only by the structure.
4. After any exercise (including regular upright walks) we should give a light massage by gently stretching the back. Heat may be applied, especially to areas with severe back pain - provided that the focus of the pain certainly does not shift with the change in posture. Because pain migration is a common phenomenon in osteochondrosis, a simple "five-minute" on a mat, such as a Lyapko applicator, is sometimes five times more effective than any heat pad. After all, we can't really buy a warm mattress instead! In addition, the warming of such a large area in the hot season carries the risk of heatstroke. . .

If we understand all this, take it into account and make sure that we do not forget, we will organize the activation of metabolic processes for our spine. As already mentioned, you should not exercise at home with osteochondrosis. Rather, you don't have to deal with it - it's better to work with a professional orthopedist or instructor who has the equipment to compensate for the lack of strength in our spine. Unfortunately, not everyone has this opportunity, so we still dare to recommend some warm-up exercises to reduce the likelihood of complications.

There is only one rule that cannot be broken. Namely, if we decide to take everything into our own hands, we must order or buy a special medical bandage or corset before training. A bandage to securely fasten the back where the pathological process is. You just have to work with the problem part of the spine, providing the support that is currently lacking.

So that:

1. We will sit close to a table with a lid on our stomach, a chair with a narrow and high back. We need to have a strong support for both the back and the back of the head. Let's lean on the back of the chair with all our backs, extend our arms and slide them along the lid to the maximum. It is necessary to bend the shoulder blades slightly by pushing them forward, but it is forbidden to pull the back of the head or the back from the stand. An object weighing more than 10 kg must be placed on the line where our palms remain in this position. Its shape and surface should be comfortable, after which we should take this object with our palms a little from below and pull it towards us without lifting it from the surface. You should do this not with your hands, but with the effort of the scapular muscles, which are now trying to return the extended arms to their normal position. As you can see, we are talking about a "married" and slightly adjusted rowing machine for our needs. Rather, its modification involves a simple weight lifting. In any case, this exercise develops the muscles of the middle of the back well - between the shoulder blades, as well as lats. After pulling the weight towards us, it should be pulled back and the pull should be repeated 15 more times.
2. Let's stand near the table we are already familiar with and put our pelvic bones on the edge of the lid. Let's put our hands behind our heads so that our heads are down so that our foreheads are on the table. At the same time, the back should not be rounded - we will round it later. For now, our task is to make 15 turns on the table itself with the hands straight back and behind the head. The correct position of the body means that in the future, if we fall on the table, we will have all our faces, not our foreheads. Therefore, we should lie on the lid, avoiding relying on it.
3. We use one of the exercises described in detail in the section on the prevention of back pain. Namely: we lie down on the ground, extend our arms above our heads, fold our legs straight together. Lift one (any) arm off the ground and at the same time extend the forward as well as the opposite leg. Of course, you should not try to throw your foot over your head, but pull back with a kicking motion. Then lower your limbs, count to three in your mind, and repeat with another pair of "opposite hands. "In total, 20 repetitions are required for both pairs of limbs.
4. We sit on the floor, our backs to the wall, our legs forward. Do not rest our backs too hard on the wall and do not rest our palms firmly on the ground. Now we need to lift the body as high as possible from the floor on one side. It is better to keep your legs straight while maintaining a sitting position. If straight lines don't work, you can try squeezing them on your chest. In this case, you should take into account that changing the position of the legs will change the center of gravity and require you to lean your head against the wall. Repeat 5-7 times.
5. We will get a special belt for weightlifting - made of thick leather, which perfectly straightens the wide, lower back. In milder forms of osteochondrosis, it is quite possible to leave only a bandage that fixes the patient's area. Take the 15-liter basin or bucket we use on the farm to the bathroom. We fill it with water so that it does not splash on the edges, we take it out to any empty place. Containers with water should be placed on the floor, legs slightly apart and bent inwards. knees for stability, bring the body forward slightly. We have to take a very vague pose - a slight forward bend with a noticeably retracted hip, but an equal line of the spine in the upper torso. This is completely normal and correct in terms of the anatomy of the human body. When you reach the desired position, we still have to sit until we catch the pelvic handles without rounding the back. After that, the pelvis should be lifted in a synchronous motion, straightening the knees and lower back.

As mentioned above, most people who self-massage find it easier to understand intuitively based on their feelings in the process. And we recommend that you regularly (daily) have an independent session with a masseur, studying the structural features of your back - all the pathologies and proportions. However, there are no two identical rotations in the world. This means that no masseur or doctor will learn this organ better than we do. Meanwhile, the individual details of the structure of our back can be extremely important here. Especially if only part of the spine is affected or its damage includes "aggravating circumstances" in the spirit of curvature, hernia, malformation.

However, here are some tips on the nuances of massage in different departments. In fact, in the original they are known only to specialists and are often released in the popular presentation of massage techniques. So that:

The process with cervical osteochondrosis affects both types of muscle equally frequently and strongly. Therefore, regular, even deep, massage does not always bring the comfort that patients expect. After all, the shoulder girdle is the most massive in the whole body, and skeletal muscles are nowhere "hidden" as deeply as here.

To be fully satisfied with the result, we will consider a few provisions that will make it easier to reach them:

• When massaging sore deltoid muscles, it is easier to "reach" their outer edge by pressing your finger from above on the depression between the clavicle and the "bowl" of the shoulder joint. You don't have to squeeze your finger too much - it's there. In addition to the muscle, there are also shoulder ligaments. However, as we knead the hard head of the muscle, we will begin to more precisely separate the spring apparatus with its soft fiber. Just work with a soft head, knead it with bending movements. Then, continuing to work from above, you can climb up and 2-3 cm up along the shoulder line;
• the inner edge of the delta (the most problematic shoulder muscle in daily life) is attached to the 7th vertebra. When we bend over, as they say, he moves stronger than others. However, there are a number of skeletal muscles under the head of the deltoid muscle and completely surround them from above manipulation. Meanwhile, the lion's share of the "discharges" of osteochondrosis pass through their fibers. Therefore, we must lie on our backs on a soft surface.

The middle of the back will give us less trouble with the number of muscle fibers. 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 seem to go under them. This is especially true for shoulder blades, where all the middle muscles are attached to one side, but none of these attachments are located directly on or over the edge of the bone:

• if we suffer from burning or shooting pains "somewhere under the backbone, " it does not matter if they are observed in the upper part of the spine, below, or even in the middle. The fact is that we will not reach these places in the usual false situation. We must lie down so that the massaged hand can hang freely from the bed and lie on the floor. The working hand is always the opposite, and it should be wrapped tightly around the top, behind the head. Inconvenient, but effective. It is better to massage the middle part under the shoulder blade with a stiff massager - we will hardly reach with our fingers and therefore will not be able to press. A pillow can be placed under the elbow of the working hand to increase the area we reach;
• How to lengthen the upper corners of the latissimus dorsi, putting his hand on it, even an acrobatic genius will not be able to do. Lats are muscles that allow bodybuilders and physically well-developed people in general to demonstrate the classic V-shaped extension of the back to the shoulders of the torso. They are the best development of a rowing machine - pulling heavy objects on the chest. They are located in the upper back and strictly on the sides. The value of the laths made for the strength of the arms and lower back can not be overestimated, so it is necessary not only to develop them, but also to monitor their condition. Moreover, the vast majority of people do not follow them at all and are rarely used directly in ordinary life. For lats massage, it is better to use a position lying on the side. In this case, for stability, pull the legs close to the stomach, pull the hand forward along the working bed and bring it under the armpit of the massaged arm. For comfort, the hand to be massaged should not be lowered to the side - it is better to lower it to the bed at chest level. Then the lower edge of the scapula will stretch after it, and the lats are immediately glued to it.

The lumbar region has its own structural features. First, the same number of small skeletal muscles here stretch along the spine, moving the vertebrae as they rotate. Second, many muscles from above connect to the sacrum. That is, connecting the lower back to the top - in fact, allows you to maintain and maintain the degree of curvature of the S-shaped back for life. By the way, for this reason, weakness in the middle of the back (scoliosis) is often accompanied by curvature of the lumbar region - lordosis and kyphosis. The main muscle of the lower back is the lats. Without his health, we would not see a normal S-shaped bend like our ears. And the sacrum and tailbone will always hurt us, even without osteochondrosis.

So let's start:

• It should be remembered that the latissimus dorsi muscle is strongly curved: its upper edge is connected to the lower part of the scapula, and the lower part to the sacral bones, ie the coccyx. Therefore, if we walk from the straight armpit to the side with our fingers or a masseur, we knead a muscle that is equally connected to both the back and the abdomen - the oblique abdominal muscle. It is not the lats that connect the lower back to the shoulder - the oblique muscle is responsible for bending the body severely to the side. Basically to successfully correct this bending. He suffers from scoliosis and pelvic injuries. For us, its main part is the lower part, close to the femur itself. There are two heads attached to the tibial joint. One is closer to the hips (joins the upper lobe), and the other goes slightly forward, towards the groin area. Thus, if we make it a habit to massage the whole area around the protrusions of the pelvis, this will no longer be the case;
• If for some reason (mostly due to pain) we decide to heat the hips, it is better to do it lying on our side, pressing our knees to our chest. This position makes it accessible to massage all gluteal muscles. For the first time, the hips may seem very painful to us and almost entirely of tendon tissue - they will be so tight to the touch. In fact, they should not be - it's a spasm. It is especially noticeable in the upper lobes and middle part. Normally, the finger in the middle of the hips should be pressed freely into the depth of a phalanx - the row of gluteal muscles is not less than the row of shoulder muscles. This is what we need to get without looking at any burning pain.