What causes neck and spine pain? Beware of these bad habits!

Spinal disease is a very common disease in daily life. When it is serious, it will directly endanger life safety. Some of our habits in life, such as bowing the head for a long time, blindly massaging, sleeping without a pillow, sitting on a soft sofa, wearing high heels, and catching up on sleep on the table can cause neck and spine pain. For our own health, we must pay attention.

1. Looking down for a long time

Looking down for a long time at a book or phone, or even walking while looking at the phone. When you lower your head, the cervical spine is subjected to excessive pressure and the flexion degree of the cervical spine changes, which can easily cause cervical disc herniation, cervical instability, etc. People who already suffer from severe cervical spondylosis may easily suffer from dizziness, nausea and other symptoms due to temporary cerebral ischemia if they suddenly raise their heads after bowing them for a long time. In more serious cases, it may also cause sudden stroke.

It is recommended to develop a good sitting and standing posture and reduce the time of looking down. If you are looking at a mobile phone, place it parallel to your line of sight. You can do some head-tilting and shoulder-shrugging movements to relieve tension in the cervical muscles. Certain exercises can also help relieve cervical spondylosis, such as swimming and playing badminton.

2 Blind Massage

For cervical spondylosis, massage therapy does have certain effects in relaxing muscles and tendons, promoting blood circulation and removing blood stasis, reducing swelling and relieving pain. It is more effective in treating radiculopathy of cervical spondylosis, and it also has certain effects on vertebral artery and sympathetic nerve types of cervical spondylosis. However, if non-professionals blindly and roughly massage the cervical spine without distinguishing the types, it will have adverse consequences and may increase the possibility of cervical spinal cord injury. If the operator uses too heavy a technique or does not know how to do it, the massage will exceed the normal strength of the cervical bones and ligaments, or if cervical lesions have caused instability in the intervertebral joints or vertebral damage, a slight application of force may cause dislocation or fracture, compressing the cervical cord or spinal nerve roots and other dangerous phenomena. Blindly and roughly massaging the cervical spine can easily accelerate the progression of the disease. Any operation that exceeds the physiological limits of the cervical vertebrae and joints may cause local traumatic reactions. In mild cases, there will be local edema, increased exudate, adhesion formation, etc. In severe cases, the ligaments may be torn, accelerating the progression of cervical degenerative diseases.

It is recommended that if you do not understand the type of cervical spondylosis you have, you should go to a regular hospital for treatment. Do not massage, beat, or pull yourself or ask non-professionals to do it.

3. Don’t sleep with a pillow

Many patients with cervical spondylosis believe that sleeping without a pillow or sleeping with a very low pillow can relieve cervical spondylosis. In fact, a pillow that is too low or even no pillow at all will cause people to keep their heads up for a long time during sleep. For people who are used to working with their heads down, sleeping with their heads tilted back may make them feel comfortable for a short time. However, if this continues for a long time, the ligaments in the neck will be tense for a long time, causing strain, which is not good for the health of the cervical spine. Similarly, a pillow that is too high is not good for the cervical spine. Because the pillow is too high, the sleeping posture will disrupt the normal curvature of the cervical spine, which will aggravate cervical spine disease in the long run.

It is recommended that a scientific and reasonable pillow should have the following three points: First, it should have a suitable height and always maintain the height of a fist. Second, it must have good breathability to allow the skin to breathe smoothly during sleep. Third, it must have a comfortable hardness. If the elasticity is too small, it will feel too hard; if the elasticity is too large, the reverse force will increase and the feeling of oppression will intensify. In fact, you can feel for yourself whether a pillow is suitable for you. If you wake up with neck discomfort and dizziness, it is recommended that you change your pillow.

4 Sit on a soft sofa

When people sit on a soft sofa and read a book or newspaper, they usually like to put the book or newspaper on their knees and read with their heads down. Due to the effect of gravity on the head, the neck muscles will be stretched. Over time, it will not only easily lead to eye muscle fatigue, but also increase the risk of cervical spondylosis.

It is recommended to sit on soft sofas as little as possible. Especially for the elderly, it is not advisable to often sit on soft sofas to read books or newspapers.

5. Wear high heels

The human spine is made up of multiple vertebrae, and the contact surface between two vertebrae is almost flat. When our posture is upright, the vertebrae are in surface contact, the force is dispersed and not easily damaged. Wearing high heels will cause the center of gravity to move forward excessively, causing the pelvis to tilt forward, increasing the curvature of the spine, reducing the contact area between the vertebrae, and concentrating the force points on the lumbar and cervical vertebrae, even to one point. In this way, the pressure on the vertebrae will increase rapidly, which may easily cause vertebral damage. Therefore, if you wear high heels too much, the damage to the vertebrae will accumulate, which will eventually lead to low back pain and cervical spondylosis.

It is recommended that if you must wear high heels, you should try to reduce the number of times you wear them, or choose medium-heeled shoes with a heel height of less than 5 cm.

6 Lying on the table to catch up on sleep

This sleeping posture causes the neck to tilt forward, which is in the opposite direction of the normal physiological curvature. Over time, it can easily lead to cervical spine deformation, neck muscle fatigue, and cervical spondylosis.

It is recommended that you lie down when you need to catch up on sleep. If this is not possible, place a soft cushion or pillow on your chest as a cushion instead of resting your head directly on your arms.

We should be careful to avoid various cervical problems caused by the above bad habits. On the basis of correcting various bad neck habits and combining non-surgical treatments such as functional exercise, traction, physical therapy, local blockade, and neck brace protection, most neck discomfort symptoms can be relieved. Only a few cases require surgery. The treatment methods adopted vary depending on the cause of the disease and the type of disease. Taking cervical spondylosis as an example, radiculopathy cervical spondylosis only requires surgical treatment when the root pain symptoms are obvious, nerve function damage occurs, long-term non-surgical treatment is ineffective, and daily life and work are affected.