Complications of Cervical Spondylosis

spinal stenosis

Our surroundings are full of busy people. You usually work from morning until night (and worst, until dawn) just to earn a living. Oftentimes, you forgot to take good care of your body. You tend to push yourself to the limit even if your body is telling you to stop. When your body cries, you neglect it. You might think that mild to moderate pain, such as headache, neck pain and body aches are simple. But, it's not all the time. Take for example Cervical Spondylosis.

Cervical Spondylosis is the injury directed to the neck's vertebrae and is due to the aging process. It commonly affects older people from ages 55 and above. This spinal dysfunction often occurs with osteoarthritis. The progressive damage augments along with time. Symptoms like stiffness and pain in the neck exacerbate as the deterioration of cervical joints continues. Its symptoms might be so common that you often grin and bear it. However, its complications will not only make you suffer temporarily but in worst cases, permanently.

The damage to the neck bones can exert tension on the roots of the spinal nerves. This leads to a condition called cervical radiculopathy. In cervical radiculopathy, various symptoms can arise depending on the affected nerves. Possible symptoms you will experience include weakness, tingling and numbness of the lower extremities, walking difficulties, atypical spinal reflexes, loss of bowel or bladder control and general absence of coordination. Because of nerve compression, spinal nerves, which make your muscles move, are unable to stimulate the muscles anymore to contract. The pain felt can be compared to an electric shock, and aggravates with sneezing or coughing or even with movements involving the spine.

In another condition, the vertebrae's structure changes and bone spurs blocks the space surrounding the spinal cord. This condition is called spinal stenosis. As narrowing of the spinal cord space occurs, damages to the spinal cord also begin to surface, leading to another condition called cervical myelopathy. Cervical myelopathy, like cervical radiculopathy, can cause you those tingling sensations and pain felt in the chest, legs and shoulders. You might also experience loss of control or weakness in the upper and lower extremities.

Your chance of having cervical myelopathy and radiculopathy increases with continuing injury to the spinal column (cervical vertebrae). You may become too powerless to walk and may even experience difficulty in performing your activities of daily living due to the pain felt with Cervical Spondylosis. You can suffer temporarily from these symptoms. However, there is also a big possibility that you can experience this condition permanently.

If you are experiencing a simple neck pain for some time now, try to consider visiting your doctor the soonest. What you think as just a simple neck pain may already be something else such as Cervical Spondylosis.