Cervical spondylosis is an age-related condition that affects the spinal disk in the neck which causes the wearing and tearing of the bones and cartilage. Cervical spondylosis is also known as cervical osteoarthritis and neck arthritis.
Symptoms
Cervical spondylosis does not have any symptoms, but if ever there is a symptom, it only affects the neck and causes pain and stiffness. The other symptoms include loss of bladder or bowel control, experiencing tingling, numbness and weakness in the arms, hands, legs or feet as well as difficulty and coordination in walking.
Causes
As the person ages, the bones and cartilages that make the backbone and neck slowly develops wearing and tearing and there are changes that happen such as the following:
- Age affects the exterior of the spinal disks, a crack may occur that will cause a bulging or herniated disks and presses the spinal cord and nerve roots.
- Dehydrated disks that function like a cushion between the vertebrae of the spine, and when the person reaches the age 40, the spinal disks begins to dry out and shrink which will allow more bone-on-bone contact between the vertebrae.
- A disk degeneration that is caused by the spine producing extra amounts of bone, which is called a bone spurs. These bone spurs can sometimes pinch the spinal cord and roots of the nerve.
- Ligaments are cords that function in connecting bone to another bone, and as the age increases the spinal ligaments becomes stiff and calcified, and causing the neck less flexible.
Some factors that can also cause cervical spondylosis such as when the person ages, the spinal disk will dehydrate and shrink. This is a normal part of aging. Kind of jobs that places extra stress on the neck such as repetitive motions of the neck, awkward positioning or engaging in overhead work and previous injuries of the neck can cause an increased risk of cervical spondylosis. If you want to learn more about treatment options, read here.
Treatment and home remedies
- Maintaining activities like having regular exercise can help in speeding up the recovery, even some of the exercises have to be modified because of pain in the neck.
- Over-the-counter pain medications such as ibuprofen, naproxen or acetaminophen can also minimize pain cause by cervical spondylosis.
- Apply heat compress or ice compress to the neck if the muscles are sore.
- Put on a soft neck brace since these collars will allow the muscles of the neck to rest for a short period of time since they can cause weakness of neck muscles.
Prevention
Cervical spondylosis is part of the aging process. Take regular exercises and limit engaging in activities that adds too much pressure on the neck, head and shoulders which can help minimize the symptoms. The best exercises include walking, swimming and yoga.
Use the correct technique when playing sports in order to reduce the risk of acquiring cervical spondylosis as well as develop good posture in standing, sitting, working in the computer, sleeping and also driving can minimize and prevent damage to the spine.