You can find out how and what chondrosis is treated today without leaving your home. Advertisements on the Internet are full of headlines for pain relief and full recovery from illness. However, how reliable and effective the methods proposed by the “sharks” of virtual business are, one can only guess.
Chondrosis (or osteochondrosis) - a disease of the spine
In fact, thousands of people would like to know how to treat chondrosis at home. An ailment is able to affect any part of the spine. Symptoms of the pathology can vary within different intensities and frequencies of manifestations, however, regardless of the severity of the disease, they cause a lot of pain to patients. Osteochondrosis is the second name for this destructive process in the cartilage tissue of the intervertebral discs. And if not so long ago the disease could only be found in older people, today the lower age threshold of the disease is updated every decade.
It is known that chondrosis is able to affect all three vertebral sections:
Symptoms and manifestations of chondrosis
Before treating chondrosis of the back, the doctor must collect the most objective history, determine the etiology and pathogenesis of the course of the disease. It is also extremely important to take into account the presence of additional ailments, which, accompanying the main one, could disrupt the therapeutic regimen.
The treatment of chondrosis is largely determined by the symptoms. Basically, pathology manifests itself with the help of the following signs:
- severe pain syndrome;
- restrictions on freedom of movement of the neck, inability to bend, bend down;
- a feeling of constant tension in any part of the spine;
- radiating pain to closely located internal organs.
Osteochondrosis in the thoracic and lumbar
So, for example, with osteochondrosis of the cervical region, the patient often suffers from frequent headaches, dizziness, visual impairment, and also feels tingling and numbness in the limbs.
Being aware of how to treat breast chondrosis, you can get rid of pain in the heart and respiratory tract. Chondrosis of the sacro-lumbar spine is often manifested by disorders of the genitourinary system and gastrointestinal tract.
Causes of chondrosis in young people
As already mentioned, the disease occurs in people of advanced age. The reason that over time chondrosis has become one of the most common diseases among people barely over 30 years old is:
- wearing uncomfortable shoes;
- prolonged sitting and working at the computer;
- excessive physical activity and lifting;
- lack of motor activity or its significant lack;
- stressful situations, unhealthy diet.
Signs of chondrosis in the cervical spine
The most common type of chondrosis is cervical. The development of pathology in the thoracic and lumbar regions often occurs due to excessive load on the back and its muscular system.
To find out how chondrosis is treated in the cervical spine, it is necessary to understand some of the features of this area. It contains a huge number of important vessels, which play a significant role in the process of transporting oxygen contained in the blood to the internal organs and brain.
The main manifestations of cervical chondrosis are:
- Pain in the neck, especially noticeable with sharp turns of the head. Without adequate treatment, pain appears even at rest, preventing the patient from just taking a breath.
- Uncomfortable sensations reflected in the back, chest, shoulder blade or shoulder. Often this symptom is the reason for making the wrong diagnosis, and therefore, the wrong treatment.
- Significant restriction of joint movements (shoulder or knee).
- Muscle hypotension.
- Pinching of the neurovascular bundle, which provides tingling and numbness of the hands and fingers (hands).
- Intolerable pulsating headaches.
What is the treatment for osteochondrosis?
With chondrosis, treatment should be started immediately. After all, pain and discomfort in the spine not only interfere with life, reducing performance and hindering any activity, but also threaten with serious complications. How chondrosis is treated today is a rather difficult question. However, despite the variety of traditional and alternative medicine methods, an integrated approach is considered the most effective. When thinking about how to treat chondrosis of the neck and back, it is important not to exclude any component of systemic therapy, which includes:
- drug treatment;
- physical Culture;
- physiotherapeutic procedures;
- massage;
- folk remedies.
Diagnosis of the disease
In order to overcome the pathology as quickly as possible, it is necessary to begin to act at the very early stage of the disease. Each type of treatment gives its positive results, preventing such a negative consequence of osteochondrosis as a hernia of the spine.
Before treating chondrosis of the neck, the doctor should become familiar with the main provisions of the diagnosis. Get the maximum number of answers to questions about the disease will help MRI of the cervical spine. This type of examination allows you to get a detailed picture of the pathology, make a preliminary forecast and draw up a therapy regimen.
What does drug treatment give?
The main principle of prescribing drugs is to restore damaged cartilage. Having achieved this goal, it is possible to stop the pathological processes progressing in the spine that destroy the bone-cartilage tissue and the integrity of the vertebrae. Therefore, experts consider the main tasks of the drug course:
- elimination of pain;
- removal of inflammation in the vertebrae affected by chondrosis;
- relaxation of the paravertebral muscles, which due to the disease are in constant tension;
- stimulation of regenerative processes in the body;
- establishment of metabolic processes and nutrition of blood vessels.
Anesthesia and removal of inflammation
Speaking about how to treat chondrosis of the cervical spine, one should probably start with the first group of drugs that guarantee a strong, but short-term effect of pain relief. The list of commonly prescribed analgesics includes medications for the relief of acute pain. As a rule, the course of treatment with their help can not exceed five days in order to avoid addiction to the body. One of the most effective active ingredients is considered to be metamizole sodium, contained in "Baralgin" or "Analgin".
To eliminate the main inflammation in the area of the pinched neurovascular bundle, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are used. To date, the choice of the main drug among a number of this group of medicines is based on the clinical picture of a particular case. The release of non-steroidal medicines is based on their belonging to the first, second or third pharmaceutical generation. Often in the sheets of medical appointments are found:
- Ortofen;
- Ibuprofen
- Diclofenac
- Ketanov
- Nimesulide.
Chondroprotectors and other types of drugs for the treatment of chondrosis
You can take medication in any form. If oral administration is not possible, an intramuscular or intravenous injection method is used.
An important and special place belongs to the drugs of the group of chondroprotectors. It is their effect on damaged cartilage tissue that contributes to its restoration and prevention of the development of new pathologies. How to treat cervical chondrosis with such drugs is strictly determined by a specialist. The course of taking medications of this type is often long, amounting to at least 3 months. The most common drugs from the group of chondroprotectors are Chondroxide, Chondrogard, and Chondrolon. They are released in the form of tablets and an injection.
Together with neosteroids and chondroprotectors, muscle relaxants must be prescribed. To eliminate muscle pain, short-term action of strong painkillers is not enough. It is possible to get rid of the pain syndrome only after reaching maximum relaxation of the paravertebral muscles. Most often, doctors prescribe such a modern drug as Midokalm.
You can normalize the nutrition process of nerve endings in case of illness with the help of increased medication, which contains a sufficient amount of B vitamins. Only a doctor can prescribe neurotropic drugs , who will also determine the permissible dosage, the duration of the course of taking medications, etc.
It is worth noting that self-treatment for chondrosis is not the best solution. Specialist consultations are extremely important not only when choosing and prescribing drugs, but also when monitoring the course of treatment for a long time. In the absence of positive dynamics, a qualified doctor may review the initial treatment plan and make appropriate adjustments.
Features of complex physiotherapy
Physiotherapy in combination with medical gymnastics and massage are no less important components of the successful restoration of the cervical spine affected by osteochondrosis. Among the procedures that are used today by patients, the most common are:
- electrophoresis;
- magnetotherapy;
- helium-neon laser treatment;
- balneotherapy.
A huge role in the treatment process is played by the exercise of gymnastics. Thanks to them, joint mobility gradually returns. During periods of exacerbation of chondrosis, physical education, of course, is not worth it. After waiting for remission, it is extremely important to perform the exercises systematically and regularly. Basic training schemes should be drawn up by a physiotherapist; independently prepared exercises can bring the opposite effect.
The same goes for massage. Regardless of what chondrosis is treated and what procedures are prescribed, massage should be performed only by a professional. Many people with the problem of osteochondrosis turn to a chiropractor for help, despite mixed reviews about his treatment methodology.
There are many cases when such sessions ended for patients with serious complications, up to disability.
Traditional medicine in the fight against chondrosis
The older generation, our grandparents, have long known how to treat chondrosis at home. Undoubtedly, folk recipes can achieve a positive result, but you can really feel the recovery only with the combined use of folk remedies with conservative therapy. The most popular recipes for chondrosis are presented below.
- Anesthetize and eliminate discomfort in the cervical spine using a potato compress. Shredded on a fine grater of one small tuber will be quite enough if you mix it with the same amount of honey. Put on the back side of the neck from the hairline to the first thoracic vertebrae, cover with polyethylene and lie down for 15-20 minutes, then rinse with warm water.
- Cervical massage with fir oil is considered an excellent way to relax tense muscles. However, in no case can you intensively press on the sick vertebrae, this can only aggravate the disease.
- How to treat cervical chondrosis at home can be suggested by the long-term use of the simplest radish remedy. The compress from the grated root crop is spread on the neck area affected by chondrosis, wrapped with cellophane, covered with a warm scarf from above, and laid down on the stomach. It is necessary to withstand the medicine on yourself for about 15 minutes.