Osteochondrosis is a family pathology for 40% of the population under 35 to 40 years old and almost 90% in old age. Even in adolescents, signs of osteochondrosis are revealed - a decrease in the height of the discs, pain, discomfort in the spine. If you start treatment of the disease in the first stage, before the disk destruction, the chance to stop progression is too high.
What is osteochondrosis?
With spine osteochondrosis, one or more intervertebral discs occurs. The disease can occur in any department:
- Thoracic;
- Shein;
- Lumbar (lumbosacral).
In severe cases, the degeneration of vertebrates against the bottom of osteochondrosis is observed throughout the pillar, which causes human deficiency. So what is this disease - osteochondrosis? The pathology is associated with a gradual, constant and progressive violation of hyaline cartilage nutrition located on intervertebral discs as a result of which they change their position, shape, crack. A person experiences a severe pain syndrome, the functions of the entire musculoskeletal system are impaired.
What is osteochondrosis in relation to its consequences? If you do not perform treatment, the vertebrae will be compacted, the cracks between them will decrease and the discs will seem collapse. This will lead to damage to nerve roots, damage to the spinal cord and harmed work from internal organs. Bone osteophytes appear along the edges of the discs - growth that causes even more pain. The consequences of this spinal disease are very serious.
The main causes of osteochondrosis
Scientists have come to conclusions, studying osteochondrosis that this disease is a consequence of a person's right, so that most people are subject to them. High daily loads in the spine, deterioration related to the age of vascular functions, inferiority of nutrition and aging of the body are the main causes of osteochondrosis. The following factors are heavy by the situation:
- Frequent inadequate position of the body (eg, curve sitting on the table, wearing a bag on the shoulder);
- Sleep in soft mattresses, pillows;
- Smooth feet, leg deformation;
- Metabolic diseases;
- Overweight creating improved loads in the spine;
- Hypodinamia;
- Posture disorders;
- Multiple pregnancy;
- Long Smoking Experience;
- The instability of the vertebrae.
Injuries, heavy physical activity greatly exacerbate the development of spine osteochondrosis. Therefore, athletes, physical work officials, lumbar osteochondrosis - a very "popular" problem. Heredity also plays an important role in the pathogenesis of the syndrome - if parents at an early age have had serious back problems, the child has a high risk of obtaining spine disease.
Psychosomatics of osteochondrosis
The psychosomatic causes of pathology are a new direction in the search for prerequisites for their formation. Psychosomatics implies the influence of psychological factors on the development and course of physical illness. The connection between body and mental problems is really tight and, in appearance, a healthy person can suffer from regular pain. With osteochondrosis, some people have no objective causes of pathology, but continues to progress.
Up to 30% of patients after a doctor visit indicates problems such as:
- Constant stress;
- Chronic experiences;
- Nervous overwhelming;
- Family problems;
- Conflicts;
- Moral collapse.
Disease stages
The intervertebral disc consists of liquid and solid parts. The first is in the center, representing a core that gives elasticity. The nucleus is surrounded by a strong ring from above. It is with the net structure that all pathological changes on the disk begin, which later spread to the shell.
In medicine, four stages of osteochondrosis development are distinguished. This refers to the conditional unit of pathology due to the severity of violations in the spine:
- The first stage of osteochondrosis. The amount of moisture on the disc falls, is dehydrated. The destruction does not yet occur, but after severe dehydration of the nucleus in the fibrous ring, microcracks begin to appear. Symptoms at this stage of the disease are usually absent.
- The second stage of osteochondrosis. The height of the disc begins to decrease, which means the gradual fixation of symptoms and the progression of the pathology. In the spine, the distance decreases between its individual segments, which is why the ligaments are fallen. At this stage, in several patients, the disease causes a slip of vertebrae - spondilolistz. Pain, discomfort occur with exacerbations, painful pain may be present even in remission.
- The third stage. Vertebral spine osteochondrosis at this stage provides a severe pain syndrome because complications begin to form. Most of the time, this is a protrusion of the disc, with less frequency - arthrosis (degeneration) of the vertebral joints, subluxation of the vertebrae. Pain is complemented by a limitation of the mobility of the affected spine segment.
- The fourth stage of osteochondrosis. The spine of the spine begins to adapt to the new conditions of existence, tries to fix the vertebrae to protect from the final destruction. For this, osteophytes grow. Pain can be hard due to lesions in nerve endings.
Osteochondrosis symptoms
The first signs of osteochondrosis usually begin at the early stage when there is no pain yet. In the neck, in the lower back, in the thoracic region when moving, you can hear a crisis (means a violation of the power of the disc, its dehydration). Also, during overloads, working in an uncomfortable position, a person can observe the rigidity of the back or neck muscles. They become "stone" on one or two sides, which is uncomfortable, causes burning, irritation.
Subsequently, the symptoms of osteochondrosis become more obvious. At rest, a person may seem normal, but the work, lifting weights, a dream on an uncomfortable pillow can cause such phenomena:
- Painful pains;
- Pains;
- Handbook (with damage to the neck);
- Feeling of rigidity;
- Forced decrease in movements;
- Muscle spasm;
- Parties;
- Increased pressure;
- Violation of posture.
By overloading the patient's spine, osteochondrosis provides more pronounced signs and symptoms. The pain occurs on the shoulders, gives it to the hands, elbows, headaches. With cervical spine osteochondrosis, there is noise in the ears, dizziness, the vertebral artery syndrome develops and the vision is disturbed. Over time, no muscular atrophy occurs without the treatment of osteochondrosis, the skin is pale. The course of heart pathologies can be aggravated, liver work, gallbladder and gastrointestinal tract is interrupted.
What is the pathology taking?
The consequences of this disease are always unpleasant, cause an increase in pain. With osteochondrosis, there are:
- Disk protrusion;
- Prolapse and hernia of the disc;
- Graces of radiculitis, ishias, lumbago;
- Kyphosis, scoliosis.
The danger of a person depends largely on the hernia type for spine osteochondrosis. They are front, rear, sides and the most dangerous are the rear hernias - they can tighten the spinal cord. In the lumbar segment of the spine, the hernias are more common, especially among 4-5 vertebrae.
Lumbar osteochondrosis can cause very unpleasant symptoms - shelters (lumbago). Lumbago pain is burning, sharp, unbearable, it is very difficult to endure. The cause is tight of the nerve because the patient is damaged by a neuromusive beam. Especially dangerous for pony tail syndrome osteochondrosis when a person has a pincone of a large pack of spinal nerves. As a result, the functions of the intestine, the bladder, may even happen leg paralysis.
Signs of osteochondrosis usually boil down to severe muscle atrophy. If the muscles do not participate in the body for a long time, spinal movements are restricted, individual fibers weaken. As a result, the patient can become a disabled person chained to bed. Cervical osteochondrosis is also very dangerous because a hernia in this segment can cause a violation of blood supply to the brain. At this stage, there is a risk of visual impairment, swallowing, speech and other brain functions.
Disease diagnosis
By independently recognizing the signs of osteochondrosis, you need to think about your treatment. As spine injury can reach different stages, the treatment of osteochondrosis will also be uneven. It is important to make the correct diagnosis for the therapy to be selected correctly.
Due to the widespread prevalence of the disease and the presence of characteristic symptoms, the doctor may take a diagnosis in a preliminary examination. But for the differentiation of osteochondrosis from other diseases of the rear and internal organs, the following diagnosis is made:
- X -Mar of the spine. This will help identify the height of the discs, the degree of thinning, as well as the presence of osteophytes.
- CT, magnetic resonance imaging. More preferable in the exam. With this disease, the severity of nerve damage, soft tissues and the lowest protrusions will allow to determine.
With osteochondrosis, laboratory tests do not play a key role, but the delivery of general analyzes, biochemistry is necessary to exclude the inflammatory process, bone rheumatoid lesions, joints. To study muscle function, the doctor conducts various physical tests and to clarify the work of blood vessels and nerves, they do a duplex, electromyography.
Treatment of osteochondrosis medicines
If with symptoms and the treatment of osteochondrosis are determined, it is not worth delaying therapy - the disease progresses rapidly. At an early stage, gymnastics is generally recommended, massage to strengthen the muscles - this will be sufficient. In the remaining internships of osteochondrosis, drug treatment will be necessary and sometimes surgery.
Helping pain is the most unpleasant sign of the disease -You can use non -esteroid anti -inflammatory drugs. They cannot cure osteochondrosis, but are always prescribed before exercise therapy to relieve symptoms. In severe cases, drugs are administered in injections, but more often are recommended by a 7-14 -day course in tablets and locally, in the form of ointments.
If a person has a strong painful syndrome in the spine, they are injected with glucocosteroid injections directly into the damage zone.
The treatment of osteochondrosis is also performed using the following means:
- B vitamins B. helps improve nerve conductivity of the spine.
- Condropoprotectors. They nourish intervertebral cartilage, strengthen the discs.
- Muslaxantes. Reduce the strength of muscle cramps to osteochondrosis.
- Vascular drugs. Optimize blood circulation in the spine.
If osteochondrosis has developed, only chondroprotectors provide anesthesia and pathogenetic treatment, they are held in courses for 3-6 months. The rest of the medicines has the symptomatic effect and does not affect the course of osteochondrosis itself.
Physiotherapy and osteochondrosis
In the list of measures than to treat osteochondrosis, physiotherapeutic techniques necessarily include. Thanks to physical therapy, the treatment of osteochondrosis will be more effective because the action extends directly to the focus of inflammation. Physiotherapy will relieve painful syndrome, eliminate spasms, improve blood microcirculation, help remove clips from the nerves. The most popular methods are as follows:
- Electrophoresis. Treatment of osteochondrosis will thus allow relaxing and anti -inflammatory substances and anesthesia directly in the vertebrae, muscles and ligaments.
- Ultrasound. Relieves unpleasant symptoms, anesthesia, creates the effect of vibration massage, activates metabolism at the local level.
- Magnetotherapy. Various or constant magnetic fields eliminate the inflammatory process.
All types of physiotherapy should be performed by courses of 10 to 15 procedures, while individual contraindications are necessarily taken into consideration.
Gymnastics and Massage
Exercise therapy in the treatment of osteochondrosis plays a dominant role. Without exercise therapy, it will not be possible to form a strong muscle corset, and the latter is extremely necessary to maintain a sick spine. In addition, gymnastics increases blood circulation in the spinal zone, improves metabolic processes and helps to quickly remove decay products.
How to cure osteochondrosis with gymnastics? The complex is selected only individually and only 1-2 stages can be performed without the doctor's control. In later stages, unnecessary and stronger movements can cause disk dispersed and strengthen the problem. In three steps, all exercises are done only in a liar position.
For the treatment of osteochondrosis, massage is required. At the acute stage, they don't do it - it will cause an emotion. But the massage performed correctly at the chronic stage with osteochondrosis is indispensable. After the session course, the muscles relax, the staples are removed, the nerves and blood vessels begin to function normally. The massage is performed only in smooth mode without sudden movements.
Pathology Prevention
In order not to bring to surgery for osteochondrosis, it is important to carefully consider prevention measures:
- Do not allow hypodinâmia. This disease can progress with energy loads, but swim, weird, loading will only benefit and help strengthen muscles and health as a whole.
- Follow the posture. At work and at home, it is important to sit correctly, not cure and childhood.
- Sleep in comfortable pillows. There are preventive pillows, with existing osteochondrosis, many others, therapeutic are used.
- Do not raise weights. If necessary, you should sit, lift the object by holding the straight back.
- Take classes regularly to strengthen the muscles. This is important for neck muscles, back, press, lumbar.
- Wear comfortable shoes. Orthopedic shoes will not allow the risk factor to defeat the vertebrae.
It is also important to eat well, not smoke, enrich the diet with vitamins, consume more fluids - so that the probability of pathology decreases.