At a young age, why did the bones call the police?
In 2012, Xiu Rong (pseudonym), a third-year high school girl, occasionally felt discomfort in her neck. The result of the CT examination was a term she had never heard before: the physiological curvature of the cervical spine became straight.
Since the condition is not serious, the doctor's advice mainly focuses on improving living habits, such as avoiding bowing your head for a long time, paying attention to relaxation of the cervical spine, etc.
In the following 10 years, she went through major life milestones such as university, postgraduate entrance examination, job hunting, and work. Her cervical spine also showed severe pain in some overworked nodes, and occasionally suffered from chest pain and slight numbness in her left hand. During several visits to the doctor, she also witnessed other symptoms such as dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and decreased sleep quality in those around her.
"I don't usually talk about this topic, I don't know, but after chatting, I found out that there are so many patients around." She said with emotion.
Xiu Rong's experience is not an isolated case, and cervical spondylosis is not the only bone disease that plagues contemporary young people. According to reports, it is estimated that the number of scoliosis among primary and secondary school students in my country has exceeded 5 million, and it is still increasing at a rate of about 300,000 per year. In addition, knee, ankle and other injuries caused by improper exercise are also common among young people. The health of bones, often considered hard enough to be neglected, also requires attention.
Sitting for long periods of time with weight bearing on the spine
Bearing the weight of the human body and gathering many important blood vessels and nerves, the importance of the spine to the human body is self-evident, and once it develops, it often produces associated symptoms.
Taking the cervical spine as an example, the clinical classification methods of cervical spondylosis are different. The commonly used classification methods include nerve root type, spinal cord type, sympathetic nerve type, vertebral artery type, etc. The extension of the vertebral artery affects specific parts, resulting in numbness in the shoulders, hands and other parts, as well as unsteady walking, dizziness, nausea and other symptoms.
"How many patients with cervical and lumbar spine diseases are currently under the age of 35 in my country. The specific data is hard to estimate, but it can be said that there are more and more young people suffering from these diseases." Chief Physician of the Second Department of Orthopedics, Wangjing Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences Wen Jianmin said: "This is actually linked to the development of the times."
Wen Jianmin, who has been a doctor for nearly 40 years, has witnessed the projection of the development of the times on bone diseases: "With the progress of society and the popularization of computers and mobile phones, the incidence of cervical spondylosis and lumbar spondylosis among young people is also increasing year by year. For example, Young people in the 1980s had more hand injuries because they used punches more; today’s young people have more cervical and lumbar spine diseases, because they use less punches and use computers more.” In addition, long-term sedentary use of computers may also Induce tenosynovitis, carpal tunnel syndrome (commonly known as "mouse hand") and other diseases.
Some doctors said that most of the people with spinal problems when they were young were white-collar workers, such as media, computer practitioners, and even teachers and office clerks, while pure manual workers rarely had the opportunity to sit and sit at desks for a long time when they were young. The probability of such problems is relatively small, and the probability of degenerative diseases after middle age is higher.
"I have a junior brother who is a surgeon. He underwent cervical spine surgery at the age of 28 or 19. The main reason is that he has to operate on patients frequently, and he has to keep his head down. When he is not doing surgery, he has to write articles and do scientific research. Sitting at the desk, causing problems with the cervical spine." A young doctor told reporters.
Spine health problems are not limited to the workplace, but also exist in schools.
Recently, CCTV news reported that it is estimated that the number of scoliosis among primary and secondary school students in my country has exceeded 5 million, and it is still increasing at a rate of about 300,000 each year. After obesity and myopia, scoliosis has become a threat to the health of children and adolescents in my country. The third major disease is related to various factors such as poor sitting posture, table and chair height discomfort, etc. If left unchecked, it will not only affect the patient's appearance, but also cause physical problems such as high and low shoulders, long and short legs, and muscle tension. Can damage nerves.
"Especially sleeping on the stomach at noon is not good for the spine of students, so we should pay attention to it. In addition, the height design of some furniture is not reasonable, and the non-standard sitting posture like 'Ge You Paralysis' is also very bad. Bone disease We should start from dolls and young people. This is related to the law of bone growth, and it is better to intervene as soon as possible." Wen Jianmin said, "The spine health of young people is related to my country's labor supply. How to prevent cervical spondylosis in white-collar workers? The incidence of lumbar spondylosis can be said to be a public health issue that needs to be paid attention to in the field of public health. From an individual’s point of view, you can work for a period of time to get up and move around, lie down and rest for a while at noon, and form a habit.”
Improper exercise joint damage
The projection of the development of the times on bone diseases is not limited to spinal injuries.
With the improvement of material living standards, people's demand for sports is getting higher and higher, and the incidence of sports injuries is also increasing.
Among them, knee joints and ankle joints, which are important weight-bearing joints of human lower limbs, are particularly prone to injury.
"Every step of the knee joint damages the cartilage, but the body is also repairing it. If you exercise vigorously for a long time, the repair speed cannot keep up with the damage speed, and the knee is prone to problems."
Wen Jianmin said, "I don't advocate running several kilometers every day and walking 10,000 steps every day. It is necessary to use the knee joint scientifically. Excessive use of not only the knee joint, but any joint is not good."
During the interview, doctors said that confrontational sports such as football, basketball, and volleyball are high-incidence areas for sports injuries, such as Achilles tendon rupture, meniscus injury, tennis elbow, etc. Once injured, it is difficult for many parts to recover to the same level as before. status.
In addition, if you exercise improperly for a long time when you are young, the negative effects may not appear in the short term, but as you age, the damage to the joints will become more obvious.
In addition to combat sports, the doctors also mentioned skiing invariably.
"Skiing is a sport with a high incidence of fractures. In the past, due to the limited protection of snowshoes, fractures were concentrated in the calf area. In recent years, more and more people like alpine downhill skiing. The fractures are not limited to the lower limbs, and even pelvic fractures. There are all, and ski lovers must be reminded to pay attention." said Sun Dahui, director of the Department of Traumatology at the First Hospital of Jilin University.
Wen Jianmin also reminded that ice and snow sports are now advocated, but pay attention to ankle sprains. When skiing, the ankle joint is under great pressure. Even if it does not fracture, the ligament damage is very dangerous and will leave lifelong problems.
Another doctor said that it is not that the greater the exercise intensity is, the better the body is, especially for the bones and joints. Exercise standardization and moderation are very important. The exercise intensity should also be gradual and gradually adapt to the intensity. If you do not exercise normally, suddenly increase the exercise intensity. , especially prone to damage.
In addition, the necessary warm-up exercises and wearing protective gear are also very important.
Comply with the law to delay regression
In recent years, health knowledge about protecting bones, such as avoiding prolonged sitting, sitting upright, exercising moderately, and paying attention to warm-up, have been frequently reported in the newspapers.
However, there is still a considerable distance between individuals from "knowing" to "doing it"; there is still a lot of room for improvement in the society's emphasis on bone health of young people.
"For human health, we should not only pay attention to the soft, but also the hard," Wen Jianmin said. "We can't just focus on cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases while ignoring bone diseases. We must pay attention to both the soft and the hard. A person's backbone is not good, just like The steel bars for building the building are not good, and the building is not well built.”
Sun Dahui also said that with the advancement of medical care, the postoperative recovery level of surgical treatment of fractures, joint injuries and other diseases has generally improved. Artificial joint replacement surgery is also popular in elderly patients, but there are still risks in surgical treatment, and artificial joints are also used. If it is still overused after replacement, the service life will be shortened accordingly.
Whether in stillness or exercise, whether the spine or joints, "degenerative" is a word doctors often refer to.
From the perspective of the life cycle of bones, bones are soft in childhood, hard in young adults, and brittle in middle-aged and old age. It's easy to show up slowly.
The main points of maintenance are always to comply with the life law of the bones, avoid overuse, intervene in time, and delay the arrival of degeneration.
"There are some bone diseases that are not obvious when you are young, but aggravate with age, such as lumbar disc herniation. When you are young, there is more water in the intervertebral disc and it is not easy to protrude. For example, if you exercise too much when you are young, you will have more waist and leg pain when you are old, and your joints will easily degenerate." Sun Dahui said.
"Some diseases are not diseases, but old age. After the age of 30, the entire skeletal system has gone downhill, and it is still necessary to take old age. Degeneration is also a natural law. Anything will age itself if it is exposed to wind and rain all year round. , the same is true of the human body, but we know the law, we must use it rationally, early detection and early intervention, so that the regression will come later." Wen Jianmin said earnestly.
"After all these years, my feeling is that once you have this disease, you have to pay attention to it all the time, and it can't be as indifferent as before." After 10 years of struggle with cervical spondylosis, I don't know how much life force is consumed by chronic pain Afterwards, Xiu Rong sighed from the bottom of her heart.
(Jia Yueyang, our reporter)