Natural Cervical Spondylosis Treatments

Cervical spondylosis is a degenerative disease of cervical region of the spine. It results from degeneration of intervertebral disc and consequent pressure on the cervical nerve roots or cervical spinal cord. It is an arthritic process involving the vertebrae, and is often associated with osteoarthritis in the rest of the skeleton.

Cervical spondylosis results from degeneration of intervertebral disc and consequent pressure on the cervical nerve roots or cervical spinal cord.

The spine is a vital part of the back which is known as life bone of the body. It is made of 24 blocks of bone piled one on top of the other. Sandwiched between these bony blocks are cushions of cartilage and elastic tissues, called intervertebral discs. The vertebral discs act as shock absorbers for the back. Mobility would be impossible without these discs. Cervical spondylosis occurs due to the narrowing of the space between the cervical vertebrae resulting in the compression of the nerves.

Symptoms of Cervical Spondylosis

The main symptom is cervical spondylosis is nagging and severe pain, which may spread over to both sides of shoulders, back side of neck, the collar bone and head side. In some cases, pain may occur in both the arms and fingers. Another important symptom of this disease is stiffness, which may be acute or chronic. It may lead to the restricted movements, which may be partial or complete. Other symptoms of cervical spondylosis are numbness and tingling or complete loss of sensation on the affected side, headache and giddiness. Occasionally, there may be weakness of the muscles of the arm or hand. Diagnosis can be confirmed by an X-ray of the spine.

Causes of Cervical Spondylosis

The main causes of cervical spondylosis are injury, faulty posture, incorrect nutrition resulting from dietic errors, psychological strain leading to the music spasm and lack of exercise. The condition may follow an injury, sustained many years ago, particularly neck injury, caused by an accident. Other causes include stress and strain resulting from sitting for a long time, improper lifting of weights and emotional problems which may cause painful muscle cramps.

Poor posture results from soft chairs and coaches, which facilitate slouching and sitting incorrectly. Sleeping on too soft a matress which results in an improper back and neck posture, can cause tension, headaches and pain in the upper and lower back. Lack of exercise is another important cause of spondylosis. Modern conveniences have made office work easier. When muscles are not exercised and remain weak, the chances of injury to them is increased manifold.

Natural Treatment for Cervical Spondylosis

Drugs prescribed to relieve pain or relax muscles in cervical spondylosis do not cure the diseases. Those can become habit forming and may actually perpetuate the condition in case of excessive intake.

Certain safety measures, especially for people in sedentary occupation, are necessary to relieve and present spondylosis. The most important of these is exercise which improves the supply of nutrients to spinal discs, thereby delaying the process of deterioration that comes with age. Safe exercise include walking, swimming and bicycling. The latter should be done keeping the back upright.

Other exercises found beneficial in the treatment of cervical spondylosis are joint movements like folding and unfolding of fingers, moving the wrists up and down, rotating them in both clockwise and anti-ciock-wise direction, folding and unfolding of the forearms and rotating the shoulder clock-wise and anti-clockwise, head and neck exercises like moving the neck up and down, moving to the sides, rotating the neck clock-wise and anti-clock-wise and nodding the neck from one shoulder to another. All these exercises should be undertaken three times daily.

Those with sedentary occupations should take a break to stand up every hour. Soft cushioned seats should be avoided and position should be changed as often as possible. The patient should sleep on a firm mattress on their sides with knees bent at right angles to the torso. He should use thin pillow or avoid it altogether.

The diet of persons suffering from spondylosis should consist of salad of raw vegetables such as tomato, carrot, cabbage, radish, lettuce and at least two steamed or lightly cooked vegetables such as cauliflower, cabbage, carrot, spinach and plenty of fruits. The patients should have four meals daily. They may take fruits and milk for break-fast, steamed vegetables and whole wheat chappatis during lunch, fresh fruit or fruit juice in the evening and a bowl of raw salad and sprouts during dinner.

The patient should avoid fatty, spicy and fried foods, sour curd, sweets, sugar, condiments as well as tea and coffee. Those who smoke and take tobacco in any form should give up completely.

The patfent should take adequate amounts of Proteins and Vitamin C as they are essential for the development of a healthy bone metrix. Vitamin D, Calcium, Phosphorous and the essential trace minerals are also necessary for healthy bones.

Foods that have been processed for storage to avoid spoiling have few nutrients and should be eliminated from the diet. The use of garlic has been found beneficial in the treatment of spondylosis. Two or three capsules of this vegetable should be taken daily in the morning. It will give good results. An oil prepared from garlic and rubbed on the affected part will give great relief. This oil is prepared by frying 10 cloves of garlic in 60 grams of oil in a frying pan. They should be fried slowly till they are brown. After it is cooled, it should be applied vigorously on the affected part and allowed to remain there for three hours. The patient may thereafter have a warm bath. This treatment should be continued for atleast 15 days.

Relief from pain can be obtained by taking lemon juice mixed with common salt twice or thrice daily. A piece of the chebulic myrobalan (harad or haritaki) taken after principal meals also gives quick relief.

Other measures found valuable in cervical spondylosis are mild oil massage to the neck, shoulders and hands, hot fomentation for five to 10 minutes twice a day, five to 10 minutes of exposure to the Infra red rays. Yogic asanas which are beneficial in the treatment of spondylosis are bhujangasana, shalabhasana, vakrasana, uttanpadasana and shavasana.