Osteochondrosis: treatment, symptoms, signs, causes.

20 December 2021

Here is another pathology that is considered age-related, but which often occurs without any relationship to age.

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 that old age could come so soon. . . Some people see these years as mature, some are more used to referring them almost to adolescence, and for some, the 60s do not seem to be a cause for discomfort. But everyone will definitely agree that for the aging process, to put it mildly, it is not yet an age.

What is the problem? In reality, it is multifaceted and can 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 dissolved proteins, right? So all osteochondrosis, along with its speed, severity, and projections of treatment, is, in fact, built on these proteins. What do we mean? Now everything will be clear.

The proteins in the "filler" of the intervertebral disc are called glycosaminoglycans. We may not need to remember this name.

But we must definitely remember that the main purpose of glycosaminated dichanes is to retain water. In addition, with the possibility of its gradual release under pressure. In other words, the proteins that create the gelatinous texture of the "filling" of the disk are made so that the water is heated inside it at rest and, under load, is gradually squeezed out.

Of course, the water itself is too fluid to do something like this. That is why the body synthesizes special, unique proteins! analog of food gelling agents such as carrageenan, gums, starch.

In order for the content of the intervertebral disc (and, remember, it is the basis of its shock-absorbing properties) to remain in order, we need throughout life:

watch what we eat, avoiding deficiencies of vital substances, especially proteins;
avoid muscle cramps in the back;
maintain active circulation of cerebrospinal fluid and blood to normalize metabolic processes in the tissues of the spine;
avoid injuries and infections of the tissues of the spine;
maintain the metabolism rate of water and salt in the body.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis.

Then, from the beginning, our back will begin to "tap dance" to the rhythm of each of our movements. However, for quite some time, this creaking can only be heard. In the future, a period of sensations will come - constant tugging, aches and pains in the areas affected by osteochondrosis. They are felt at rest and gradually increase with movement. Subjectively, patients note that the joints affected by the process seem to tire faster than others. Consequently, as the feeling of fatigue intensifies, so does the pain.

But this, of course, is 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 deteriorates as the situation drags on and very quickly. Over time, the crunches become painful.

Each of these sounds is now accompanied by a burst of dull pain both at the site of its appearance and in nearby tissues of any kind. It appears to spread out as an extensive pain wave from one point in the joint, exactly in accordance with the laws of resonance.

Symptoms of cervical osteochondrosis.

If we have problems with the cervical spine, we may feel:

headache resistant to standard treatment: dull, aching, stabbing, constant, evenly distributed throughout the head. It coincides with an increase in neck pain and is similar to the headaches that appear with sudden increases in blood pressure. As a rule, with osteochondrosis, too high pressure causes a headache;
Unmotivated attacks of dizziness throughout the day: with sudden changes in posture, head movements, tremors. Dizziness often coincides with the rhythm of breathing: with each inhalation a dangerous "lightness" appears in the head and disappears during exhalation. Such symptomatology means that at this time 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 cervical osteochondrosis, occur periodically and last for several days. Sometimes one replaces the other, sometimes they are separated by periods of relative pressure;
aching pain in the neck, especially at the base of the skull. In the initial stages, it is expressed by vague discomfort during the day and a cracking sound when turning the head. But touching the spine in this area or trying to massage the muscles causes pain and stiffness of the muscle fiber. Later, the pain is permanent, increases when turning the head to one side, leaning towards the chest, after sleeping on a high or too soft pillow;
Painful pains in the chest (as under the ribs), under the scapula, returning to the shoulders and upper chest muscles. They resemble an attack of angina pectoris or coronary artery disease as much as the pain in a herniated disc, but they are more permanent. For example, in diseases of the cardiovascular system, pain rarely lasts for more than a few hours and depends little on the rate of respiration. With osteochondrosis, it is constant, worsens with each breath, lasts for periods of up to several days or more;
Lumbago along the entire shoulder line, often to the fingertips. As a general rule, depending on the degree of progression of osteochondrosis, the patient suffers at the same time, either from short-term "lumbago" in the shoulder joint, or from episodes of numbness and acute prolonged "lumbago" throughout the entire inner surface of the arm. As for the infringement of the small neurons of the shoulder, it does not make itself felt at rest, but is sharply aggravated with the first movements of the head after a long immobility. Patients describe it as "electric shocks along the spine, in 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 of cervical osteochondrosis, the sensitivity and mobility of the tongue decrease. Patients may become unable to distinguish some flavors (not recognizing bitter, sour, sweet, but it is easy to name a mixed flavor). Some people report changes in diction, especially when it is necessary to speak quickly and / or clearly.

Symptoms of osteochondrosis of the thoracic region.

Signs of thoracic osteochondrosis:

painful, aching in the chest, "somewhere under the ribs". Unlike coronary artery disease, it is difficult for the patient to determine his center more precisely. Such pain significantly depends on the rhythm of breathing: it increases with inspiration and coughing. And despite all the uncertainty of its location on the chest, each of these attacks clearly resonates with the causal vertebra / vertebra. 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 sensation of incomplete inhalation, inability to carry out the lower exhalation;
pain and discomfort in the gastrointestinal tract, especially often in the stomach, large intestine, liver, and pancreas. Pain can range from mild, inaudible discomfort to obvious cramps. Therefore, osteochondrosis of the thoracic region is often confused with slow gastritis, enteritis, colitis, chronic pancreatitis.

Lumbar osteochondrosis symptoms

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

With it we will have:

Sore pain in the lower back, aggravated when bending over, 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 the back, with the legs stretched out. It grows only with prolonged stay or the habit of sleeping in the fetal position. That is, with the knees close to the chest. Patients with lumbar osteochondrosis change quickly and voluntarily from a soft bed to a hard one, since it is easier to maintain the position of the embryo on a hard floor throughout the night;
lumbar stiffness syndrome. It involves: the inability to bend down quickly after prolonged standing or sitting, associated not so much with pain as with a generalized decrease in muscle extensibility and stiffness of the bones in the affected area; rapidly advancing numbness in the lumbar region when sitting or standing, associated with an acute infringement of the nerve endings in this position of the vertebrae;
entrapment of the sciatic nerve (the main neural trunk of the legs, which enters the spine in the region of the coccyx). With osteochondrosis of the lumbosacral region, it belongs to the number of sciatica scenarios, although it is 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 own back.

Let's remove the feather bed and the feather pillow from the bed. Let's leave a main mattress, let's get an orthopedic pillow - dense, low, with a fixed depression in the middle. These pillows are usually made of quilted polyester. So you need to make sure it is not too squishy, now it is bad for us. And the probability that it will "fly away" and become a flat pancake in 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 seventh vertebra that protrudes when the head is tilted. If it is 1. 5-2 cm lower, the better.
We will buy another pillow not too thick or use our old feather in a new quality. From now on, we will always need to place this pillow under the thighs or buttocks in a supine position, as well as under the top of the knee when sleeping 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 instantly make the pain disappear in the most noticeable focus in this particular position.
It is strictly forbidden to lift and carry objects weighing more than 10 kg in case of osteochondrosis. Therefore, any training must be done with us with your own weight or with the minimum. With any type of osteochondrosis, it is wiser that we do not do it alone, but go to the gym. It's in the gym, since cardio (treadmill, bike, skiing) and fitness are not the same. Now of course we need to organize our extra back support and work with strictly the same correct body position. The best for such purposes is a simulator - a steel frame, in which both we and the weight being lifted can only move in an amplitude limited by the structure.
After any effort (including routine upright walking), we should massage the back lightly, stretching it gently. Heat can be applied to places of especially severe back pain, as long as the focus of the pain does not migrate along with the change in posture, of course. And since pain migration is a frequent phenomenon in osteochondrosis, sometimes a simple "five minutes" on a mat such as the Lyapko applicator turns out to be five times more effective than any heating mat. After all, we really can't buy a heating mattress instead! Also, in the hot season, heating such a large area runs the risk of ending in heatstroke. . .

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

There is only one rule here that must not be broken. Namely: if we decide to take everything 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 the part of the back where there is a pathological process. You need to work only on it, providing support to the problematic section of the spine, which it currently lacks.

Then:

We will sit near the table, the lid of which would have leaned against our stomach, on a chair with a narrow and high back. We must have firm support for both the back and the neck. Let's lean back with the whole backrest on the back of the chair, stretch our arms, sliding them through the lid, to the maximum. It is even necessary to stoop a little, pushing the shoulder blades forward, but for this it is forbidden to tear the back of the head or back from the support. On the line where our palms remain in this position, an object weighing more than 10 kg should be placed. Its shape and surface must be comfortable, since then we will have to take this object with the palms slightly from below and pull it towards us, without lifting it from the surface. You need to move it not so much with your hands as with the strain of the scapular muscles, which are now trying to return the extended forward forearms to their normal position. As you can see, we are talking about a "domesticated" rowing machine and slightly adjusted to our needs. More precisely, its modification, which involves a simple pull of weight on oneself. In any case, this exercise develops well the muscles of the middle part of the back, between the shoulder blades and the lats. After pulling the weight towards us, it should be shifted back and the traction should be repeated 15 more times.
Let's get close to the familiar table and rest our pelvic bones on the edge of the eyelid. Let's put our hands behind our heads, let our heads drop so that our foreheads rest on the table. At the same time, the back should not be rounded; we will round it up later. For now, our task is to make 15 curves towards the table itself with the back straight and the hands behind the neck. The correct position of the body means that in the future, if we fall on the table, we will be our whole face, not our forehead. Therefore, on top of the lid itself, we must linger, avoiding depending on it.
We use one of the exercises detailed in the section on preventing back diseases. Namely: we lie face down on the floor, arms extended above the head and legs straight together. Raise one (any) arm off the floor and reach forward at the same time, as well as the opposite leg. Of course, you shouldn't try to get your leg over your head, but rather pull it back with a kicking motion. Then lower your limbs, mentally count to three, and repeat with another pair of "opposite hand-leg. "In total, you should do 20 reps for both pairs of limbs.
We sat on the floor with our backs to the wall, with our legs stretched out in front of us. Don't lean your back too hard on the wall and rest your palms on the floor safely. Now we have to lift the body with one hand above the ground as high as we can. It is better to keep the legs straight while maintaining the sitting position. If it doesn't work with straight lines, you can try squeezing them against your chest. In this case, you should be aware that changing the position of your legs will shift your center of gravity and require you to rest your head against the wall. Repeat 5-7 times.
We will obtain a special belt for weightlifting - wide, made of thick leather that perfectly fixes the lower back. In milder forms of osteochondrosis, it is quite possible to leave only the bandage that fixes the diseased area. Take a 15-liter sink or bucket that we use on the farm into the bathroom. We fill it with water so that it does not splash around the edges, we remove it to any free space. Dishes with water should be placed on the floor, the legs should be slightly apart and bent. knees for stability, slightly move body forward. We should achieve a very ambiguous pose: a slight forward lean, with the buttocks remarkably back, but an even line of the spine in the upper torso. This is completely normal and correct from the point of view of the anatomy of the human body. When the desired position is reached, we still need to sit down until we can grasp the pelvic handles without rounding our back. After that, the pelvis should be raised, with a synchronized movement stretching the knees and lower back.

As mentioned above, self-massage is easier for most people to intuitively understand, relying on the sensations of the process. And we recommend that you simply regularly (daily) perform an independent session with a massager, discovering the structural characteristics of your back, with all its pathologies and proportions. Anyway, there are no two identical twists in the world. So no masseur or doctor will study this organ better than us. Meanwhile, the individual details of the structure of our back can be extremely important here. Especially if only a part of the spinal column is affected or its damage includes "aggravating circumstances" in the spirit of curvature, hernia, malformations.

However, here are some recommendations related to the nuances of massage from various departments. In fact, in the original they are known only to specialists and are often omitted from the popular presentation of massage techniques. Then:

With cervical osteochondrosis, the process affects both types of muscles with equal frequency and strength. Therefore, a regular massage, albeit in depth, does not always provide patients with the relief they have hoped for. After all, the shoulder girdle is the most massive in the entire body, and the skeletal muscles are nowhere "hidden" as much as here.

And for complete satisfaction with the result, we will take into account several provisions in which it will be easier to reach them:

When massaging the sore deltoid muscles, it is easier to "reach" their outer edge by pressing a finger from above into the depression between the clavicle and the "bulge" of the shoulder joint. You shouldn't press your finger too hard there. In addition to the muscle, the shoulder ligaments are also located. However, as we knead the rigid head of the muscle, we will begin to distinguish more precisely between its soft fiber and the elastic ligamentous apparatus. It is necessary to work exclusively with a smooth head, kneading with twisting movements. Then you can go up and 2-3 cm up along the shoulder line, continuing to work from above;
The inner edge of the deltoid (the most troublesome shoulder muscle in everyday life) is attached to the seventh vertebra. He acts louder than the others when, as they say, we lean our head against our chest. But under the head of the deltoid muscle there are several skeletal muscles, and it completely covers them from manipulation from above. Meanwhile, most of the "discharge" from osteochondrosis passes through its fibers. Therefore, we must lie on our back on a soft surface.

The middle of the back will give us less problems with the amount of muscle fibers itself. However, its design is very complex, in the sense that most of the muscle heads here are not attached to the edges of the bones, but, as it were, go under them. This is especially true for the shoulder blades, to which all the muscles in the middle are attached to one side, but none of these attachments are directly on or above the edge of the bone:

if burning or stabbing pains torment us "somewhere below the scapula, " it does not matter whether they are observed on 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 need to lie down so that the massaged hand hangs freely from the bed and rests on the floor. The working hand is always the opposite, and should be wrapped tightly from above, behind the back of the head. Inconvenient, but effective. It is better to massage the middle part under the shoulder blade with a hard massager; we will barely reach with our 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 your hand on top, even the genius of acrobatics will not be able to do it. The lats are the muscles that allow bodybuilders and generally well-developed individuals to demonstrate the classic V-shaped extension of the back from torso to shoulders. It is they who the rowing machine develops well: the pulling of heavy objects towards the chest. They are located in the upper part of the back and strictly to the sides. The value of lats developed for arm and lower back strength cannot be overestimated, therefore they should not only be developed, but also monitor their condition. Furthermore, the vast majority of people do not follow them at all, and in everyday life they are used directly on very rare occasions. For back massage, it is best to use a lying position on your side. In this case, for stability, the legs should be brought closer to the stomach, the working hand should be pushed forward along the bed and brought under the armpit of the arm being massaged. For comfort, the hand to be massaged does not need to be kept low along the side; it is more appropriate to lower it also on the bed at chest level. Then the lower edge of the scapula will be stretched after it and the lats will immediately join it.

The lumbar region has its own structural characteristics. First, the same row of small skeletal muscles runs the length of the spine here, moving the vertebrae as you twist. Second, in this place, many muscles coming from above are attached to the sacrum. That is, connect the lower part of the back with the upper part; in fact, it allows you to maintain and maintain throughout life the speed of the S-shaped curvature of the back. By the way, for this reason, weakness in the middle of the back (scoliosis) is often accompanied by a curvature of the lower back: lordosis and kyphosis. The main muscle of the lumbar spine are the lats. Without your health, we won't see a normal S-shaped curve like our ears. And the sacrum and coccyx will constantly hurt us, even without osteochondrosis.

So let's get started:

It should be remembered that the latissimus dorsi muscle goes strongly oblique: its upper edge is attached to the lower part of the scapula, and the lower - to the sacral bones, that is, to the coccyx. Therefore, if we walk directly from the armpit with our fingers or with a massager down the side, we will knead a muscle that is equally related to both the back and the abdomen: the oblique abdominal muscle. These are not the lats, which connect the lower back to the shoulder; the oblique muscle is responsible for tilting the body strictly to one side. Mainly to successfully straighten this lean. He suffers a lot from scoliosis and pelvic injuries. 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 joint. One is located closer to the buttock (it merges with your upper lobe) and the second goes slightly forward, towards the groin area. So if we make a habit of massaging the entire area around the pelvic bone protrusions, it will definitely not be superfluous;
If for some reason (most of the time due to pain) we decide to warm up the buttocks, it is better to do it lying on your side, with your knees close to your chest. This position makes all the gluteal muscles available for massage. For the first time, the buttocks can seem very painful to us and as if they were made up entirely of tendon tissue, they will be so dense to the touch. Actually, they shouldn't be like that, it's a spasm. It is especially noticeable in the upper lobes and the middle part. Normally, the finger in the middle of the buttocks should be freely pressed to the depth of one phalanx: the gluteal muscle matrix is not less than the shoulder muscle matrix. This is what we must achieve without looking at any burning pain.