Inflammatory spondylosis

　　97% of the middle-aged and elderly Chinese population suffer from vertebral diseases, and in recent years, there has been a trend of youthification. Among people under 40 years old, more than 40% have various vertebral diseases, and the incidence of scoliosis in children is as high as 25% or more. Relevant investigations show that about 70% to 80% of primary and middle school students have incorrect postures while studying, and various incorrect postures are easy to make the vertebral column stay in a curved position or certain specific positions for a long time, not only increasing the pressure inside the intervertebral disc but also causing the muscles and ligaments of the vertebral column to be in a state of non-coordinated stress for a long time, leading to scoliosis. In addition, metabolic disorders of the human body, especially calcium and phosphorus metabolism and hormone metabolism, often lead to various vertebral diseases.

　　1. Incorrect posture, such as sitting posture, standing posture, lying posture, and long-term work in the same posture, etc.

　　2. Unreasonable bedding can cause excessive ligament and muscle tension, leading to fatigue, intervertebral disc protrusion, and dysfunction of small joints.

　　3. Attacks of wind and cold, dampness, affect local blood circulation, accelerate tissue degeneration.

　　4. Trauma will worsen the condition, and chronic injury will gradually lead to the exacerbation of the disease.

　　5. Psychological factors and poor overall health may cause or worsen the symptoms of vertebral disease.

　　6. Genetic factors: About 1% of patients with vertebral disease are hereditary.

　　7. Occupational factors: dancers, long-distance drivers, welders, office workers, and those who work with their heads down for a long time, etc.

　　Inflammatory spondylitis has a wide range of complications according to the location of the vertebral disease.

　　1, Dysphagia

　　There is a sense of obstruction during swallowing, a foreign body sensation in the esophagus, and some people may have symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, hoarseness, dry cough, and chest tightness. This is due to the narrowing of the esophagus caused by direct compression of the posterior wall of the esophagus by the anterior margin of the cervical spine, or it may be caused by the rapid formation of osteophytes, which leads to a stimulation reaction of the soft tissues around the esophagus.

　　2, Visual impairment

　　Presented as decreased vision, eye pain, photophobia, lacrimation, unequal pupil size, and even narrowing of the field of vision and sharp reduction in vision. Some patients may even go blind. This is related to the ischemic damage of the occipital lobe of the brain caused by autonomic nerve disorder and insufficient blood supply from the vertebral basilar artery due to cervical spondylosis.

　　3, Cervical heart syndrome

　　Presented as chest pain, chest tightness, arrhythmia (such as midbeat), and ST segment changes on electrocardiogram, it is easily misdiagnosed as coronary heart disease. This is caused by the stimulation and compression of the cervical spine by osteophytes.

　　4. Hypertensive cervical spondylitis

　　It can cause hypertension or hypotension, with hypertension being more common, known as 'cervical hypertension.' Since both cervical spondylosis and hypertension are common diseases in the middle-aged and elderly, they often coexist.

　　5. Chest pain

　　It is characterized by a slow onset, persistent unilateral pain in the pectoralis major muscle and breast, with tenderness in the pectoralis major muscle during examination. This is related to the compression of the cervical nerve roots C6 and C7 by the cervical osteophytes.

　　6. Lower limb paralysis

　　Early symptoms include numbness, pain, and limping in the lower limbs. Some patients may feel as if they are walking on cotton when walking. Some patients may also have bowel and urinary disorders, such as frequent urination, urgency, difficulty urinating, or incontinence of stools and urine. This is due to the stimulation or compression of the lateral bundle of the vertebral body by the cervical osteophytes, leading to motor and sensory disorders in the lower limbs.

　　7. Sudden collapse

　　Patients often suddenly lose their balance and fall over due to a sudden turn of the head while standing or walking. After falling, they can quickly regain consciousness without any loss of consciousness or sequelae. These patients may also have symptoms of autonomic nervous system dysfunction, such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and sweating. This is due to the compressive changes of the cervical spondylosis on the vertebral artery, leading to a temporary deficiency of blood supply to the basilar artery, causing transient cerebral ischemia.

　　Spondylitis is not only a disease of spinal joints. The majority of cases are accompanied by involvement of various large joints in the body, with pain and symptoms related to the affected joint部位. When the hip joint is involved, patients may report hip pain, but some patients often complain of pain in the inguinal region of the affected side. Early symptoms may include limited hip flexion and movement, and the knee joint may also develop flexion contractures. Although rare, this can also be a cause of disability in this disease. Other toe joints may develop redness, swelling, and pain, but deformities are rare. Swelling and pain in the finger joints are the least common.

　　In addition, a few cases may also show pain, swelling, or tenderness involving the temporomandibular joint, costovertebral joint, and sternoclavicular joint. The involvement of the costovertebral joint can also cause chest pain and decreased breathing, and can stimulate the intercostal nerves, causing intercostal neuralgia. Left intercostal neuralgia can be misdiagnosed as angina pectoris, which deserves attention for differential diagnosis.

　　During long periods of低头 bending over, it is important to take breaks to avoid poor circulation, muscle strain, and muscle spasms that can lead to vertebral damage.

　　1. The duration of maintaining a single posture should not exceed two hours, after which appropriate neck and lower back stretching exercises should be performed. The duration of these exercises can vary, but they must be consistently practiced to form a habit. At the same time, attention should be paid to keeping warm.

　　2. In addition to maintaining good posture and avoiding fatigue, choosing good bedding is also very important during sleep. However, for patients with mild symptoms, absolute bed rest can be adopted.

　　3. To relieve lower back pain, you can place something under your lower back while sleeping, such as a towel, to slightly elevate it and maintain the physiological curve of the spine. After this treatment method, you will feel very relaxed in your lower back the next day. In fact, maintaining and treating lumbar vertebrae can be done at any time and place, even during sleep, as it can also help treat lumbar diseases.

　　4. Just reduce prolonged sitting and lying, increase physical activity, pay attention to rheumatism (keep the waist warm), and eat more vegetables and fruits in terms of diet, and supplement trace elements and minerals needed by the human body (to enhance physical fitness and have a very good health care effect on the waist).

　　The electromyogram of patients with inflammatory spondylitis and cervical disc herniation is due to the fact that both inflammatory spondylitis and cervical disc herniation can cause long-term compression of the nerve roots, leading to degeneration and losing the inhibitory effect on the muscles they支配. As a result, muscle fibers that have lost nerve control can produce spontaneous contractions due to the stimulation of a small amount of acetylcholine in the body. Therefore, fibrillar potentials may appear in one or both upper limb muscles, and occasionally a few fasciculation potentials. During small exertion, polyphasic potentials are normal and no large potentials appear. During large exertion, complete interference phase is presented. The average duration and amplitude of motor unit potentials are normal. The amplitude is 1~2 millivolts. Inflammatory spondylitis causes widespread degeneration of intervertebral discs, leading to bone hyperplasia. The range of nerve root damage is wide, and more muscles show denervation. In the late stage of the disease and in patients with a long course, a decrease in wave number and amplitude may appear during active self-force contraction. Cervical disc herniation often involves a single intervertebral disc, and the changes are mostly on one side of the upper limb, with a segmental distribution of denervated muscle range.

　　CT has been used to diagnose conditions such as incomplete vertebral arch, bone hyperplasia, burst fractures of vertebral bodies, ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament, spinal stenosis, and spinal cord tumors, leading to spinal canal expansion or bone destruction. It is used to measure bone density to estimate the degree of osteoporosis. In addition, since the cross-sectional images can clearly show the soft tissues inside and outside the dura mater, it can correctly diagnose conditions such as intervertebral disc herniation and neurofibroma. The emptying of the spinal cord or medulla oblongata also has certain value for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of inflammatory spondylitis.

　　Patients with inflammatory spondylitis should pay attention to adjusting their diet and lifestyle. In addition to taking high-quality protein to nourish muscle tissue every day, they should also consume a large amount of foods rich in vitamin B1, such as peanuts and soybeans, because vitamin B1 has a soothing effect on neuralgia. The effect is even better when vitamin B1-containing foods are used together with garlic. In addition, vitamin E, iron, calcium, and other nutrients should be consciously supplemented.

　　1. Diet Adjustment

　　Inflammatory spondylitis is caused by factors such as bone degeneration and spondylolysis, so friends suffering from inflammatory spondylitis should mainly eat a diet rich in calcium, vitamin B complex, vitamin E, and protein in their daily life. Among them, calcium is well-known as the main component of bones, and foods high in calcium include milk, fish, pork tail bone, soybeans, black soybeans, etc. As for protein, it is an indispensable component for the formation of bones, ligaments, and muscles. Vitamin B and E can alleviate pain and relieve fatigue.

　　2. Diet Restrictions

　　In addition to the aforementioned issues, there are no special dietary taboos for patients with inflammatory spondylitis. However, patients with cervical spondylosis should not relax their vigilance. Since the adjustment period for inflammatory spondylitis is very long, it is still important to maintain good eating habits in daily life, neither favoring a particular food nor eating irregularly. Generally speaking, the following foods should be eaten in moderation: fatty foods, cold foods, spicy foods, and fried foods. It is also not advisable to drink alcohol excessively.

　　The clinical treatment of inflammatory spondylitis mainly adopts two methods: surgical treatment and non-surgical treatment. Surgical treatment is mainly for patients with severe symptoms, who have no effect after strict non-surgical treatment, and whose bodies can withstand surgery. Non-surgical treatment methods commonly used in clinical practice include the following:

　　1. Traction

　　By applying external force or the body's own gravity, the gap between the vertebral bodies is widened, which is conducive to the recovery of the nucleus pulposus, restores the normal arrangement of the vertebral bodies, relaxes the tension of the ligaments, and thereby reduces the compression and stimulation on the spinal cord and spinal nerve roots.

　　2. Minimally Invasive Therapy

　　The 'Gouhuo Technique', this therapy is safe and effective. It uses the principles of traditional Chinese medicine to relieve the pressure and tension around the lesions, relax the adhesions of tissues, muscles, ligaments, and fascia to achieve a state of balance, and finally achieve the goal of curing the disease.

　　3. Fixation and Bracing

　　By using orthopedic pillows, neck collars, and lumbar corsets, the cervical and lumbar vertebrae are fixed and braced to reduce further injury and facilitate the repair of the injury.

　　4. Manual Massage and Manipulation

　　Through special techniques, restore the vertebral bodies and small joints to their normal physiological positions and curves, thereby achieving the goal of rehabilitation.

　　5. Physical Therapy

　　By acting on the human body through various physical factors (such as infrared rays, magnetism, electricity), it achieves the purpose of anti-inflammatory, analgesic, and accelerating recovery, which is very effective for improving clinical symptoms.

　　6. Closure

　　Distribute the drugs locally in the patient, which has a relatively obvious effect, but is not suitable for long-term use.

　　7. Drug Treatment

　　Through the administration or injection of Chinese and Western medicine, the drugs are absorbed into the human body. This method of medication takes a long time and has poor effects, and the side effects are significant, so it is not recommended to use it extensively, widely, or for a long time.