Osteochondrosis: treatment, symptoms, signs, causes

Here is another pathology that is considered age-related but often appears with no age-related relationship.

For example, this fact: more than half of patients with osteochondrosis worldwide noticed the first signs of its development at the age of 25 years. Yes, no one thought old age could come so quickly. . . Some people see these years as mature, some are more accustomed to referring to them almost in their teens, and for some, the 60s do not seem to be reasons to feel bad. But firmly everyone will agree that for the aging process, to put it mildly, it is not yet an age.

Where does the problem lie? In reality, it is versatile and may seem complicated to a layman. But in reality there is nothing complicated about it. In the section on spinal disc herniation, we said that its content is water with proteins dissolved in it, right? So all osteochondrosis, along with the speed, severity and prognosis of its treatment, are actually built on these proteins. What do we mean? Now everything will become clear.

The proteins in the "filling" for the intervertebral disc are called glycosaminoglycans. Maybe we do not need to remember that name.

But we must remember that the main purpose of glycosaminized stores is to retain water. Moreover, with the possibility of its gradual release under pressure. In other words, the proteins that create the jelly-like texture of the "filler" for the disc are made so that the water inside it is heated quietly and under load is gradually squeezed.

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

In order for the contents of the intervertebral disc (and remember that it is the basis of its protective properties) to remain in order, we need throughout life:

• monitor what we eat, avoiding deficiencies of vital substances, especially proteins;
• avoid muscle cramps in the back;
• maintaining active circulation of cerebrospinal fluid and blood in it to normalize metabolic processes in spinal tissues;
• avoid damage and infection of spinal tissues;
• maintain the rate of water-salt metabolism in the body.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis

So from the beginning, our back will start to jump to the rhythm of every movement. However, for quite a long time this crack can only be heard. In the future, there will come a period of sensations - constant withdrawal, excruciating pain and discomfort in the areas affected by osteochondrosis. They make themselves calm, and with movement they gradually increase. Subjectively, patients notice that the joints affected by the process seem to get tired faster than others. Therefore, with the intensification of the feeling of fatigue, the pain of the pain also increases.

But that, of course, is far from the end of the process, though 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 situation drags on and very quickly. Over time, the cracks themselves become painful.

Any such sound is now accompanied by an outburst of dull pain both at the site of its occurrence and in nearby tissues of any kind. It seems to propagate like a wide painful wave from one point of the wrist - 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, painful, throbbing, persistent, evenly distributed throughout the head. It coincides with an increase in neck pain and is similar to headaches that appear with an increase in blood pressure. As a rule, with osteochondrosis, too high pressure leads to a headache;
• unmotivated dizziness attacks throughout the day: with sudden changes in posture, head movements, tremors. Often, dizziness coincides with the rhythm of breathing - a dangerous "ease" in the head appears with each inhalation and disappears during exhalation. Such symptomatology means that at present the intracranial pressure is reduced, and not excessive, as in the previous example. As a rule, these two symptoms are observed alternately in all patients with osteochondrosis of the cervix, occur periodically and last for several days. Sometimes one replaces the other, sometimes they are separated by periods of relative pressure;
• painful pain in the neck, especially at the base of the skull. In the initial stages it is expressed with vague discomfort during the day and with cracking when turning the head. But touching the spine in this area or trying to massage the muscles gives pain and stiffness to the muscle fiber. Subsequently, the pain is permanent, increasing with turning the head sideways, bending at the chest, after sleeping on a high or very soft pillow;
• painful pain in the chest (as if under the ribs), under the scapula, with return to the shoulder and upper chest muscles. They resemble an attack of angina pectoris or coronary artery disease as much as pain in a disc herniation, but are more permanent. For example, in diseases of the cardiovascular system, the pain rarely lasts more than a few hours and depends little on the rhythm of respiration. With osteochondrosis, it is constant, worsens with each breath, lasts up to several days or more;
• "Lumbago" along the entire shoulder line, often up to the fingertips. As a rule, depending on the degree of progression of osteochondrosis, the patient suffers at the same time either from short-term "lumbago" at the shoulder joint, or from numbness and acute prolonged "lumbago" along the entire inner surface of the. Wing. As for the damage to the small neurons of the shoulder, it is not felt at rest, but is aggravated sharply by the first movements of the head after a long immobility. Patients describe it as "electrical discharges along the spine, to the shoulder muscles. And radiation to the hand is often accompanied by a spasm of the wrist muscles and a violation of the sensitivity of the ring finger as well as the little finger;
• quite often, although in less than half of all cases with cervical osteochondrosis, the sensitivity and mobility of the tongue is reduced. Patients may become unable to distinguish certain tastes (not recognizing bitter, sour, sweet, 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:

• pain, pulling pain in the chest, "somewhere below the ribs. "Unlike coronary heart disease, the patient finds it difficult to pinpoint its center. Such pain significantly depends on the rhythm of breathing - it increases with inspiration and with cough. And despite the uncertainty of its location in the chest, any such attack echoes clearly in the causal vertebra / vertebrae. In 99 out of 100 cases, it is the displaced vertebra that hurts the most;
• disturbances in the sensitivity and mobility of the pulmonary diaphragm - the appearance of a feeling of incomplete absorption, inability to perform lower extraction;
• pain and discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract - especially often 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 slow gastritis, enteritis, colitis, chronic pancreatitis.

Symptoms of lumbar osteochondrosis

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

With it we will have:

• Pain in the lower back, aggravated by bending, sitting for a long time or standing - in general, almost any movement of the body. As a rule, it bothers the sick at night, in the presence of the habit of sleeping on their backs, with legs straight. He leaves only with prolonged stay or the habit of sleeping in the fetal position. That is, with knees sunk into the chest. Patients with lumbar osteochondrosis move rapidly and voluntarily from a soft bed to a firm bed, as it is easier to maintain the position of the embryo on a firm floor overnight;
• lumbar stiffness syndrome. It means: the inability to bend quickly after a long standing or sitting position, associated not so much with pain as with a general decrease in muscle extension and bone stiffness in the affected area; rapidly advanced numbness in the lumbar region when you are sitting or standing, accompanied by acute damage to the nerve endings in this position of the vertebrae;
• blockage of the sciatic nerve (the main nerve trunk for the legs, entering the spine in the coccygeal region). With osteochondrosis of the lumbosacral region, it belongs to the number of sciatic nerve 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 have to undergo treatment for a long time, so we will first improve the quality of life of our backpack.

1. Let's remove the feather bed and the feather pillow from the bed. Let's leave a main mattress, get an orthopedic pillow - dense, low, with a depression fixed in the middle. Typically, these pillows are made of polyester filler. Therefore, you need to make sure it is not too soft - it is now harmful to us. And the likelihood that it will "swell", turn into a flat pancake within a week, is very high. The thickness of the roller along the edges should be equal to the length of our neck from the base of the skull to the 7th vertebra that protrudes when the head is tilted. If it is 1, 5-2 cm lower, the better.
2. We will buy another not too thick pillow or use our old feather in a new quality. From now on, we will always have to place this pillow under the thighs or buttocks in the supine position, as well as below the upper knee when sleeping in the fetal position. Let's experiment with the height, width, and optimal position of the pillow - the right thing, placed in the right place, will bring the immediate disappearance of pain into the most obvious focus in this particular position.
3. It is strictly forbidden to lift and carry any object weighing more than 10 kg in case of osteochondrosis. Therefore, any workout should be done with us with your weight or minimum. With any type of osteochondrosis, it is wiser for us not to do it ourselves but to go to the gym. It is in the gym, as cardio (treadmill, bike, skiing) and fitness are not the same. Now, at all costs, we need to arrange extra back support and work with the exact same body position. The best for such purposes is a simulator - a steel frame, in which we and the lifting weight can only move at an amplitude limited by the structure.
4. After each strain (including the vertical walking routine), we should do a light back massage, lightly stretching it. Heat can be applied to places with particularly intense back pain - provided the focus of pain does not migrate along with the change of posture, of course. And since pain migration to osteochondrosis is a common phenomenon, sometimes a simple "five minutes" on a rug like the Lyapko applicator turns out to be five times more effective than any heating pad. After all, we really can not buy a heating mattress! Moreover, in the warm season, heating such a large area risks ending up in heat stroke. . .

If we understand all this, we take it into account and we are sure that we will not forget, we will organize the activation of metabolic processes for the spine. As already mentioned, you should not exercise at home with osteochondrosis. More precisely, you should not be distracted by this - it is better to work with a professional orthopedist or an instructor where there are devices that can compensate for the strength deficiencies that have arisen in the spine. But since, alas, not everyone has such an opportunity, we still dare to recommend some warm-up exercises with a reduced probability of complications.

There is only one rule here that should not be broken. Namely: if we decide to take matters into our own hands, before we start training, we should definitely order or buy a special medical bandage or corset. A bandage for reliable fixation of exactly that part of the back where there is a pathological process. You just have to work on it, providing support to the problematic section of the spine, which it currently lacks.

So:

1. We will sit close to the table, the lid of which would have rested on our stomachs, in a chair with a narrow, high back. We need to have strong support for both the back and the back of the head. Let us lean with our whole back on the back of the chair, stretching our arms, sliding them along the lid, to the maximum. It is even necessary to bend slightly, pushing the edges of the shoulders forward, but for this it is forbidden to detach the back of the head or the back from the support. At the line where our palms remain in this position, an object weighing more than 10 kg should be placed. Its shape and surface should be comfortable, as then we will have to take this object with our palms slightly down and pull it towards us, without lifting it from the surface. You should move it not so much with your hands as with the efforts of the scapular muscles, which are now trying to return the outstretched forearms to their normal position. As you can see, we are talking about a "softened" and slightly adjusted rowing machine for our needs. More precisely, its modification, implying a simple pulling of the weight on itself. In any case, this exercise develops well the muscles of the middle back - between the shoulder blades, as well as lats. Once we pull the weight towards ourselves, it should be moved backwards and the pull should be repeated 15 more times.
2. Let's stand near the table already familiar to us and place our pelvic bones on the edge of the lid. Let us put our hands behind our heads, let our heads fall so that our foreheads rest on the table. At the same time, the back should not be rounded - we will round it later. Right now, our task is to make 15 turns on the table with the back straight and hands at the back of the head. The correct body position means that in the future, if we fall on the table, we will be all face, not forehead. Therefore, over the lid itself, we must extend, not relying on it.
3. We use one of the detailed exercises in the section on preventing back diseases. Namely: we lie flat on the floor, arms outstretched over our head, with straight legs folded together. Lift one (each) arm off the floor and lie forward at the same time as the opposite leg. Of course, you should not try to throw the leg over the head, but pull it with a kick motion. Then lower your limbs, count to three, and repeat with the other pair "opposite hand". In total, you should do 20 repetitions for both sides of the limbs.
4. We sit on the floor, with our backs to the wall, with our legs outstretched forward. Do not rest your back too tightly against the wall and keep your palms firmly on the floor. Now we have to raise the body with one hand on the floor as high as we can. It is better to keep the legs straight while maintaining their sitting position. If it does not work with straight lines, you can try tightening them on the chest. In this case, you should keep in mind that changing the position of the legs will shift the center of gravity and require you to lean your head against the wall. Repeat 5-7 times.
5. We will get a special weight belt - wide, made of thick leather that perfectly adjusts the lower back. In the milder forms of osteochondrosis, it is quite possible to leave only the bandage that fixes the diseased area. Take a 15-liter tub or bucket we use on the farm to the bathroom. We fill it with water so that it does not splash on the lips, we take it out in any free space. Water containers should be placed on the floor, feet should be slightly open and bent. knees for stability, slightly move the body forward. We should get a very fuzzy pose - a slight bend forward, with a visibly placed buttocks behind, but an even line of the spine at the top of the torso. This is perfectly normal and correct from the point of view of the anatomy of the human body. When the desired position is reached, we should sit until we grasp the pelvic gloves without rounding the back. After that, the pelvis should be raised, with a synchronized movement that directs the knees and lower back.

As mentioned above, self-massage is easier for most people to understand intuitively, relying on the sensations in the process. And we recommend that you simply perform an independent session with a masseur, discovering the structural features of the back - with all its pathologies and dimensions. However, there are no two identical spins in the world. So no masseur or doctor will study this organ better than us. Meanwhile, the individual details of the structure of our backpack can be extremely important here. Especially if only a part of the spine is affected or its damage involves "aggravating circumstances" in the spirit of bending, herniation, malformations.

However, here are some recommendations related to the nuances of massage of different departments. Indeed, in the original they are known only to specialists and are often overlooked in the popular presentation of massage techniques. So:

With cervical osteochondrosis, the process affects both muscle types just as often and vigorously. Therefore, a regular, albeit in-depth massage does not always bring the patients the relief they hoped for. After all, the shoulder girdle is the most massive in the entire body, and the skeletal muscles are nowhere "hidden" as deep as here.

And for complete satisfaction with the result, we will consider some provisions in which it will be easier to reach them:

• When massaging aching deltoid muscles, their outer edge is easier to "reach" by pressing a finger from above into the depression between the clavicle and the "hump" of the shoulder joint. You do not have to press your finger too hard - there. in addition to the muscle there are also shoulder ligaments. However, as we cook the rigid head of the muscle, we will begin to distinguish more accurately between its soft fiber and the ligament apparatus with elasticity. It is necessary to work exclusively with a soft head, cooking it with twisting movements. Then you can climb and 2-3 cm up along the shoulder line, continuing to work from above;
• the inner edge of the deltoid (the most problematic shoulder muscle in daily life) is attached to the 7th vertebra. He acts stronger than others when we, as they say, bow our heads to our chests. But under the head of the deltoid muscle there are a number of skeletal muscles, and it completely covers them from manipulation from above. Meanwhile most of the "discharges" of osteochondrosis pass through their fibers. Therefore, we should lie on our backs on a smooth surface.

The middle of the back will give us less problems with the very number of muscle fibers. However, their design is very complex - in the sense that most of the muscle heads here are not glued to the edges of the bones, but, as it were, go beneath them. This is especially true for the shoulder blades, in which all the lumbar muscles are glued to one side, but none of these attachments are located directly at the edge of the bone or at the top of it:

• if we are tormented by burning or shooting pains "somewhere under the shoulder", it does not matter if they are noticed at the top of the scapula, below or even in the middle. The fact is that in the usual lying position we will not reach these places. We should lie down so that the massaged hand hangs freely from the bed and lies on the floor. The working hand is always opposite, and should be firmly injured from above, behind the back of the head. Inappropriate but effective. It is better to massage the middle part under the shoulder blade with a strong massager - we will hardly reach with the fingers, and therefore we will not be able to press. To increase the area we reach, a pillow can be placed under the elbow of the working hand;
• how to stretch the upper corners of the latissimus dorsi, putting his hand up, even the acrobatic genius will not be able to. Lathes are the muscles that enable bodybuilders and well-developed individuals in general to demonstrate the classic V-shaped back extension from the torso to the shoulders. They are the ones that the rowing machine develops well - pulling heavy objects to the chest. They are located on the upper back and strictly on the sides. The value of the laths developed for the strength of the arms and lower back can not be overestimated, so they must not only develop, but also monitor their condition. Moreover, the vast majority of people do not follow them at all, and in ordinary life they are used directly very rarely. For lats massage, it is better to use a lying position on your side. In this case, for stability, the legs should be pulled closer to the stomach, the working hand should be pulled forward along the bed and inserted under the armpit of the massaging arm. For convenience, the hand to be massaged does not need to be kept sideways - it is more convenient to lower it even on the bed at chest level. Then the bottom edge of the scapula will lie behind it, and the laths are immediately glued to it.

The middle region has its own structural characteristics. First, the same row of small skeletal muscles runs along the spine here, moving the vertebrae when you turn. Second, in this place, many muscles coming from above are attached to the sacrum. That is, the connection of the lower back with the upper - in fact, allows you to maintain and maintain throughout life the rate of curvature of the back in the form of S. By the way, therefore, the weakness in the middle of the back(scoliosis) is often accompanied by curvature of the lower back - lordosis and kyphosis. The main lumbar spine muscle is the lats. Without her health, we would not see a normal S-shaped twist like our ears. And the sacrum and tail will hurt us constantly, even without osteochondrosis.

So let's start:

• it must be remembered that the latissimus dorsi muscle goes strongly obliquely: its upper edge is attached to the lower part of the scapula, and the lower one - to the sacral bones, that is, to the coccyx. Therefore, if we walk straight from the armpit with the fingers or with a massager down to the side, we will cook a muscle that connects equally to both the back and the abdomen - the oblique abdominal muscle. This is not the lat, which connects the lower back to the shoulder - the oblique muscle is responsible for tilting the body strictly to the side. Mainly to run successfully from this slope. She suffers greatly from scoliosis and pelvic lesions. Its main section for us is the lower one, close to the femur itself. There are two heads with which it is attached to the tibial node. One is located closer to the buttocks (joins its upper lobe), and the second goes slightly forward, in the groin area. So if we make it a habit to massage the entire area around the pelvic bone extensions, it will definitely not become superfluous;
• if for some reason (most often due to pain) we decide to warm the buttocks, it is better to do so by lying on our side, placing the knees on the chest. This position makes all the gluteal muscles available for massage. For the first time, the buttocks may look very painful and if they are made up entirely of tendon tissue - they will be so dense to the touch. In reality, they should not be - it is a spasm. It is especially noticeable in the upper and middle lobes. Normally, the toe between the buttocks should be pressed loosely into the depths of a phalanx - the gluteal muscle group is no smaller than the shoulder muscle group. This is what we need to achieve without seeing any burning pain.