Cervical spinal stenosis

Cervical spinal stenosis

What Causes Cervical Spinal Stenosis

Narrowing of the spinal canal and/or the spinal nerve root passages in your neck is called Cervical spinal stenosis. When this narrowing occurs, your spinal cord and/or nerves may become compressed and cause symptoms such as pain, numbness, tingling and weakness in your neck, shoulders, and extremities. If cervical spinal stenosis causes spinal cord compression, your doctor may refer to the condition as cervical myelopathy.

What Causes Cervical Spinal Stenosis?

The backbone (spine) runs from your neck to your lower back. The bones of your spine form a spinal canal, which protects your spinal cord (nerves).

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Some people are born with a small spinal canal. But most spinal stenosis occurs when something happens to narrow the open space within the spine. Causes of spinal stenosis may include:

. Overgrowth of bone. Wear and tear damage from osteoarthritis on your spinal bones can prompt the formation of bone spurs, which can grow into the spinal canal. Paget's disease, a bone disease that usually affects adults, also can cause bone overgrowth in the spine.

. Herniated disks. The soft cushions that act as shock absorbers between your vertebrae tend to dry out with age. Cracks in a disk's exterior may allow some of the soft inner material to escape and press on the spinal cord or nerves.

. Thickened ligaments. The tough cords that help hold the bones of your spine together can become stiff and thickened over time. These thickened ligaments can bulge into the spinal canal.

. Tumors. Abnormal growths can form inside the spinal cord, within the membranes that cover the spinal cord or in the space between the spinal cord and vertebrae. These are uncommon and identifiable on spine imaging with an MRI or CT.

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. Spinal injuries. Car accidents and other trauma can cause dislocations or fractures of one or more vertebrae. Displaced bone from a spinal fracture may damage the contents of the spinal canal. Swelling of nearby tissue immediately after back surgery also can put pressure on the spinal cord or nerves.

Things To Avoid with Cervical Spinal Stenosis

Pain is the body’s way of telling you that something is wrong and needs your attention. Those living with a spinal stenosis know this too well and constantly being in pain leads to the detriment of their overall health and well-being.  People with this condition tend to wait and hope that it will go away on its own, but that rarely happens.

According to studies, over 47% of those above 60 years of age have reported symptoms of spinal stenosis such as neck pains, tingling of the arms and legs among others. While age is a contributing factor to getting the condition, there are other factors that may cause spinal stenosis.

You may have started doing the recommended exercises, which you hoped was enough, but the pain doesn’t seem to fade. Managing spinal stenosis calls for delicate balance between what you should and what you should stay away from. 

Don’t Keep Waiting for it to Disappear

If you think spinal stenosis is just like any other back pain that goes away on its own, you are wrong. The condition is quite different compared to other causes of back pain such as lifting heavy loads and poor sitting posture. One of the condition’s characteristics is that it worsens with time if you don’t try any medically proven remedies. The fact is that it will never just go away without any intervention since it is termed to be a progressive condition.

That said, you aren’t limited to what you can do to minimize the condition’s development. Specific recommended exercise programs are great for improvement of mobility and reduction of both back and leg pain. These remedies are essential since they help improve muscle strength to walk better without enduring as much pain as before.

Don’t Focus on the Inflammation

Spinal stenosis symptoms tend to worsen the more you walk without treating it since the leading cause is a contraction of the spinal cord, which irritates the leg nerves. The irritation of the terms causes inflammation, and so this should be part of the treatment. Using medication dedicated to anti-inflammation is only a temporary solution and should follow other spinal stenosis treatments too.

Solely relying on anti-inflammatory medication can make your symptoms worse and limit mobility with time.  It is vital to make changes to your spine’s biomechanics for improvements of your spine’s movements. Accomplishing this can be through both exercises and postural correction.

Limit Flexion Exercises

Prescription of flexion exercises has been a critical element for patients with spinal stenosis for decades. The exercises mainly bend the spine forward, increasing the diameter of the spinal canal, taking pressure off the nerves helping with less irritation.

It is important to limit yourself to this exercise and add the sustained standing lumbar extension exercise. This bending backward exercise’s main benefit is moving your spinal discs away from the spinal canal and nerves, giving them more space to function correctly.

Stop Focusing on Surgery

Believing that surgery solves everything is not the best way to look for solutions. It is not always the case for spinal stenosis since surgery can sometimes only make minimal improvements to the conditions. Non-intrusive methods such as physical exercises and other medications can go a long way to improving the state of your condition.

Remaining vigilant about what you do and staying off certain things will provide you with a smooth experience as you deal with spinal stenosis.

Source:

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/spinal-stenosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20352961

https://southernpainclinic.com/blog/things-to-stop-doing-if-you-have-spinal-stenosis/

10 common question about Cervical spinal stenosis

1What is the best treatment for cervical stenosis?
A cervical laminectomy is a spine surgery that involves removing some posterior bone to relieve excess pressure on the nerves in the cervical spine, or neck. A cervical laminectomy can be performed to relieve the symptoms of spinal stenosis, the narrowing of the spinal canal.
2Can you be paralyzed from cervical spinal stenosis?
Cervical myelopathy can affect both the arms and the legs. Pressure on the spinal cord, as it runs through the cervical spine, can cause many symptoms. Cervical stenosis can cause weakness and spasticity in the legs.
3What can happens if cervical spinal stenosis is left untreated?
If untreated, this can lead to significant and permanent nerve damage including paralysis and death. Myelopathy symptoms may affect one's gait and balance, fine motor skills including dexterity, grip strength, and changes in bowel or bladder function.
4What causes cervical spinal stenosis?
Most cervical problems are due to degenerative changes that occur in the discs and joints of the neck. Degenerative changes that affect the structures of the spine can cause the spinal canal to become too narrow, a condition called spinal stenosis. This may lead to pressure on the spinal cord.
5How do you get rid of cervical stenosis?
There is no cure for spinal stenosis, but there are treatments to help relieve symptoms. Over-the-counter anti-inflammatory medications can ease swelling and pain. If they don't do the trick, your doctor can prescribe higher-dose medication. Your doctor may also recommend cortisone injections.
6Is cervical spinal stenosis progressive?
However, it is important to note that cervical stenosis does not always get worse and cause progressive symptoms. Many people have mild stenosis and never become symptomatic, or have mild symptoms which are not bothersome enough to seek treatment.
7What does c6/c7 affect?
This disc protects the vertebrae by providing shock-absorption during neck motion. C7 spinal nerve. The C7 spinal nerve exits through the intervertebral foramen between the C6 and C7 vertebrae. This nerve has a sensory root and a motor root.
8How dangerous is cervical spinal stenosis?
Cervical spinal stenosis can potentially cause serious problems with the nervous system, including problems with bowel or bladder control (incontinence) and permanent loss of strength and feeling in the arms, hands, legs, and chest.
9Is cervical spinal stenosis a disability?
Fortunately, lumbar spinal stenosis is one of the few back conditions recognized by the Social Security Administration (SSA) as an official impairment listing, meaning that those with documented cases of severe lumbar spinal stenosis are automatically granted disability benefits – if you can meet the SSA's tough ...
10What activities should be avoided with spinal stenosis?
Patients may have less pain by avoiding the higher impact exercise such as jogging, avoiding contact sports, and avoiding long periods of standing or walking.

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