Low back pain is not just back pain. The health of the spine and spinal cord, associated the finest nerve fibres with all the internal organs, affecting the heart, kidneys, lungs and gastrointestinal tract, and even on your General condition. Maybe you will be surprised, but even depression can arise due to tragic events in a person's life, but only because the destruction of the cervical vertebrae pinch the nerves related to the brain. How to treat folk remedies, this disease.
Osteochondrosis is an extremely serious and unpleasant disease. It is often accompanied by pain in the lumbosacral region and in one of the lower extremities. According to the latest medical data, the main cause of back pain is degenerative (destructive) process in the intervertebral discs. In osteochondrosis of the intervertebral disc is a special cartilage structures that provide our backbone flexibility and mobility become defective. When osteochondrosis progresses, irreversible changes occur in the vertebrae.
The causes of osteochondrosis
Causes of osteoarthritis can be set, and, as is often the case, it is impossible to name one, the main. Negative factors are superimposed on one another, and the result is disease.
With age, the cartilages lose their elasticity and become less durable. Because of this, the intervertebral discs are poorly restored after the stress. Uncompensated burden on one side of the body slowly but surely undermines the health of the spine: sitting in an asymmetrical pose, transfer weight in one hand, keeping a particular posture for a long time (e.g., reading while lying on one side), using the wrong pillows and mattresses for sleeping (the head is at an angle to the body, the body is uneven). This can cause bulging of the intervertebral disc and compression coming out of the corresponding vertebra of the nerve. And it already starts the disease associated with this division of authority.
Malnutrition is closely linked to another cause of low back pain — obesity. The extra weight is not only additional load on the spine, no muscle elasticity and a decrease in mobility. Rich in carbohydrates and fats food brings rapid saturation, but these "empty" calories do not give the body anything useful - no vitamins, no minerals, no energy. And without calcium, potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, manganese and other trace elements the cartilage and bones become more porous and faster collapse under the impact loads. So, sadly, will have to give up sweets, fried, baked goods and semi-finished products and go to the diet consisting of fish, fresh fruits and vegetables. Moderate should be consumption of cereals, sunflower and olive oils, cheese and cottage cheese. Meat, butter, fresh pastries and fatty dairy foods, salt and coffee should be severely limited, and the latter, ideally, eliminate.
To the previous two reasons, a third person joins — a violation of metabolism. Metabolism is the body's ability to take, process and absorb food, obtaining energy and material for building cells. Usually these processes are regulated automatically, as the process of maintaining the internal equilibrium of the mineral composition. Of incoming food, the body takes exactly the amount of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals and water as he needs for normal operation. If, however, there is a deficit of some substances, disturbances of protein, fat, carbohydrate, mineral and water metabolism. Consequences of metabolic disorders to the skeletal system can become osteoporosis and deposition of salts — frequent companions of osteoarthritis.
Flat feet, wearing uncomfortable shoes, high heels are also causes of degenerative disc disease. Abnormalities in the structure of the arch of the foot causes the spine to excessively compensate for the load arising in the process of walking, the body weight is distributed incorrectly.
Other causes: trauma of the spine and abnormalities in the structure of the vertebrae and cartilage, sedentary lifestyle, the impact of which we will discuss later, heavy physical work and constant heavy lifting, not giving the spine the ability to recover, abrupt cessation of sports and the weakening of the muscular system and stress, which can be pinched blood vessels and nerves extending to the brain.
Symptoms
When you may have a suspicion that your spine is not all right and it's time to consult a specialist for diagnosis?
Onset of the disease can go unnoticed: sometimes patients feel only numbness or discomfort in a specific location of the spine, depending on the localization of degenerative changes.
Depending on what the spine has become your weak link and succumbed to the ravages of osteoarthritis, you may experience the following symptoms.
When the cartilage between the vertebrae become thinner and shrivel, and holes and narrow channels, respectively, the vertebral artery is pinched, the brain produces the symptoms of lack of oxygen (headache, dizziness, anxiety). At this moment can develop chronic fatigue syndrome, depression, the person experiences a constant lack of vitality.
Then to the unconscious discomfort can join headaches and dizziness, hearing loss and vision when it comes to cervical degenerative disc disease.
Numbness and pain when moving the arms, girdle pains of the chest arise from the thoracic osteochondrosis.
Lumbar osteochondrosis is characterized by pain when walking, bending, recurrent pain in the pelvic joint and pain radiating to the groin and legs.
All these signs talking about the violation of the physiological health of the spine, that it cannot cope with its workload.
What does the term "osteochondrosis"? In translation from Greek osteon means "bone", chondros — "cartilage", the ending-os is a non — inflammatory disease, but in General it is a degenerative process that is aging cartilage and bone tissue.
What violations and in which parts of the spine are located, depend the symptoms of osteoarthritis. Affecting all areas of the spine, degenerative disc disease can affect the Cervical, thoracic, lumbosacral departments and be complicated by sciatica, spondylosis, sciatica, "lumbago", intervertebral hernias.
Cervical osteochondrosis
Localization of degenerative disc disease in the neck (cervical osteochondrosis) occurs quite frequently. The cervical spine suffers most in people who do repetitive work — designers, programmers, secretaries, dentists, watchmakers, etc. As a rule, the development of cervical degenerative disc disease contribute to the driving and prolonged computer work. The main signs and symptoms of cervical degenerative disc disease include: headache, dizziness, pain in the arms and chest, backache, numbness of the tongue.
With cervical osteochondrosis often sick and dizzy, dark eyes, blood pressure rises. Through the transverse processes of the cervical vertebrae in addition to the canal for the spinal cord is the channel for the so-called vertebral artery. It is aimed in the cranial cavity and nourishes the cerebellum, vestibular apparatus and the centers lying in the neck and the base of the brain. The displacement of the vertebrae leads to reflex spasm of the vertebral artery, and in severe cases, and squeezing her. Thus, disturbed blood supply to centers of balance and several autonomic centers that control vital processes. It is this process that is the cause of so much of the diagnosis "vegeto-vascular dystonia".
In osteochondrosis of the cervical spine can present and radicular symptoms (cervical radiculitis): pain radiates to the arms, and sometimes individual fingers, they're numb, be constantly cold. The reason for this is the violation of the passage of the impulse along the nerve fiber. The numbness of a finger, you can judge the offset of the particular vertebra.
Thoracic osteochondrosis
Thoracic spine osteochondrosis very rarely affected. One of the main reasons for the development of thoracic degenerative disc disease is a curvature of the spine (scoliosis). As a rule, all the prerequisites for the future development of thoracic osteochondrosis formed still at school. The thoracic spine is the least mobile, so signs and symptoms of thoracic osteochondrosis are very different from the symptoms of cervical or lumbar degenerative disc disease. In most cases, the main difference between thoracic osteochondrosis is no sharp pain and the presence of only a dull, aching pain in the back.
The symptoms and signs of thoracic degenerative disc disease include: chest pain, numbness, feeling of pins and needles in the chest, pain in region of heart, liver, stomach. Very often thoracic osteochondrosis masquerades as other diseases (e.g., angina, myocardial infarction, peptic ulcer disease, gastritis).
According to this, because its symptoms can be confused with, for example, myocardial infarction or pneumonia. Pain associated with degenerative disc disease of the thoracic spine, a long, similar to the intercostal neuralgia. Sometimes the pain can give under the shoulder blade, that makes you suspect a heart attack. The difference between coronary heart disease and intercostal neuralgia is that in osteochondrosis the patient has normal (or near normal) electrocardiogram, there are no symptoms such as sudden pallor, cyanosis, semlitsch skin, cold sweat, etc.
Thoracic degenerative disc disease, in addition that by itself is associated with a variety of painful symptoms (pain, neurological reactions), threat that causes the development of severe diseases of neighboring thoracic spine internal organs.
Lumbosacral osteochondrosis
Osteochondrosis of the lumbar spine lumbar osteochondrosis is the most common. This is because on the lower back (lumbar vertebrae), usually the main burden falls. Most often lumbar degenerative disc disease may be complicated by herniated discs of the lumbar spine.
The symptoms and signs of lumbar degenerative disc disease include: low back pain (pain in the lower back are bothering a person for many years and are characterized by cyclical, worsened in the autumn-winter period), limitation of mobility, pain in the legs. Very often, when lumbar osteochondrosis observed a sharp (shooting) or aching pain in the legs, some exciting leg part (e.g. rear or side of the thigh). Besides pain may be increase or decrease the sensitivity of the skin of the legs (on the thigh or lower leg) to touch or to pain, these symptoms osteoarthritis explained pinched spinal roots.
The most common cause of intervertebral degenerative disc disease in the lumbosacral spine traumatic (compression fracture or chronic trauma).
In the lumbar of the nerve roots forming the so-called sciatic nerve, nervus ischiadicus, hence the name complications — sciatica. If the infringement of nerve pain spreading along the nerve trunk in the region of the buttocks, under the knee, sometimes in the calf or the heel. In advanced cases there may be significant malnutrition of the nerve trunk, then the leg goes numb. The symptoms of loss of sensitivity is very stable, sometimes numbness persists for a long time.
When sciatica the man begins to limp, avoiding to carry the body weight on the painful side, bending in a healthy way, as much as possible to push the vertebrae in the affected part, and thereby to reduce compression of the spine. Over time, as a result of treatment the pain go away or become tolerable. If the vertebrae is not reduced, there remains a curvature of the spine. In this case, the load on the intervertebral disk that is already damaged, uneven, leading to its further protrusion and destruction.
The most unpleasant complication of lumbar-sacral osteochondrosis, instability of the vertebra. The drive already does not fix the vertebra in load under the action of gravity lumbar "slide" with the sacrum. Develop pathological processes in the nearby internal organs. The patient is recommended to carry out stretching, consistent with pain. If the proper procedure, the pain should decrease, not increase.
The statistics of complaints to the doctor about the degenerative disc disease is small — only up to 20% of potential patients. Usually come when it becomes unbearable. However, osteochondrosis is much more dangerous than it seems at first glance. Timely access to a doctor, in the early stages of development of degenerative disc disease will allow you to significantly reduce treatment time and rehabilitation period.