How to exercise the cervical spine and shoulders

Nowadays people pay great attention to physical exercise. Physical exercise is indeed helpful to improve personal health. However, if you want to exercise the cervical spine and shoulders, you must be careful not to move too vigorously. If you use force, it may cause strain and sprain. Before exercising, you must do warm-up exercises to ensure that the local area can promote blood circulation and is very flexible.

Note: Do the movements slowly and don't use too much force, otherwise it will be counterproductive.

1. Rub your neck back and forth with your left palm, count to 8 times silently, and then start pinching the back of your neck. Then switch to your right hand. Helps relax the neck.

2. Turn your head 90 degrees to the left, stay for 3 seconds, then turn right, and stay for 3 seconds. Do two 8 counts.

3. Stretch your neck forward as far as possible, stay for 3 seconds, then lean back and stay for 3 seconds. Do two 8 counts.

4. Place your hands on both sides of your shoulders with your palms facing down. Rotate your arms from back to front 20 to 30 times, and then from front to back 20 to 30 times.

5. Place your left hand behind your back and your right arm in front of your chest, with your palm raised and pushed out parallel to the left. At the same time, look to the right. Hold for a few seconds. Then switch hands.

6. Rotate 360 ​​degrees 5 times left and right, front and back, and then rotate in the opposite direction 5 times.

7. Cross your hands and place them behind your neck. Push your head and neck hard, and push your head and neck backwards, resisting each other 5 times.

8. Raise your hands above your head, cross your fingers, and keep your palms facing up. Tilt your head back and look at the back of your hands. Hold for 5 seconds.

9. Rotate the eyeballs clockwise and counterclockwise. Close your eyes, rub your palms together to warm them up, and place them on your eyelids for a while. Open your eyes and look into the distance. It would be best if there are green trees in the distance.

10. The Hegu point is located at the base of the thumb and index finger. Separate the thumb and index finger, and use the thumb of your other hand to massage the area frequently. It can treat symptoms such as eyestrain, headache, sore throat, etc.

Is cervical spondylosis surgery risky?

At present, the technology for surgical treatment of cervical spondylosis in our country is very mature and basically in line with international standards. Therefore, many patients may be afraid of cervical surgery, but there is actually no need to do so.

This surgical technique itself is very mature. For cervical spine surgery, we divide it into minimally invasive cervical spine surgery and conventional cervical spine surgery.

Minimally invasive cervical spine surgeries include the mainstream endoscopic surgeries of the cervical spine. During an endoscopic surgery under local anesthesia or general anesthesia, the incision may be only seven or eight millimeters in size, and the inner diameter is used to relieve compression on the cervical nerve roots or spinal cord.

Currently, the best indication for this surgery is radiculopathy. Some doctors prefer to remove the intervertebral disc directly from the front under endoscopy. Conventional surgeries mainly include some anterior cervical discectomy, subtotal cervical vertebrae resection, including some posterior cervical open-door surgeries and total vertebrae resection. These are the main surgical methods commonly used for cervical spondylosis.

1. Condition and Diagnosis

Even for the same cervical spine surgery, the reasons for the surgery are different. The condition and diagnosis directly affect the difficulty and success rate of the surgery. Situations with higher risks account for a very small number of the overall cervical spine surgeries. Common conditions that are difficult to operate on and have high risks include: extensive cervical tumors, severe ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL), cervical fracture-dislocation, peak period of spinal cord injury edema, severe long-segment cervical spinal stenosis, complex lesions of the upper cervical spine, cervical kyphosis, etc. These difficult injuries account for about 5-10% of the total surgeries, while the vast majority of others are general cervical spondylosis, disc herniation, fracture-dislocation, OPLL, cervical spinal stenosis, etc., and the surgical reliability is relatively higher.

High-risk factors for surgical treatment of cervical spondylosis include:

1. Severe cervical spinal stenosis, long delay before surgery, severe condition, nerve adhesion;

2. The patients are old and frail. The incidence of postoperative complications is relatively high in patients over 70 to 80 years old;

3. The patient may have serious comorbidities before surgery, such as diabetes, cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, liver and kidney dysfunction, etc., which will increase the probability of perioperative complications.

Bulk data from home and abroad (similar to our observations) show that the effectiveness of cervical spondylosis treatment is around 80-90%, but surgical results are not obvious in around 10% of patients. This is directly related to the fact that some nerves have already degenerated and necrotic. Taking all patients who underwent cervical spine surgery together, the rate of curable surgical complications is generally 5-10%, the rate of permanent neurological loss (paralysis or significant loss of limb function) is around 0.3%, and the incidence of death due to surgical and hospitalization complications is around 0.2%.