A Pain in the Neck

A Pain In The Neck

Have you ever thought about the things people say about their aches and pains? Well we never think about the things that our bodies go through. A few years ago, my mother had a car wreck; a drunk driver struck her from behind. This accident caused her a great deal of pain in the following years to come. She went to doctor after doctor, but not one of them could tell her what was wrong with her body. Finally she met a doctor and he diagnosed her with cervical spinal stenosis. This condition has many different names as well as causes.

The first name we will discuss will be cervical osteoarthritis, also know as degenerative arthritis. This comes about over time. The cartilage in the joints that cushion the bones begins to wear down. This causes the vertebrae to rub together as to cause friction. Over time the bones become so worn down that bone spurs develop causing a great deal of pain, and pressure on the nerves in the spinal column. This mainly occurs in people who have had some type of bone or joint injury in the neck. The pain is a type of radiating pain between the shoulders. You can sometimes actually hear the bones grind and pop when moving or turning your head.

The second name for this is called spondyloisthesis. To put this in simple terms this is also known as a slipped disc. This occurs when one of the vertebra has moved forward over another. Most of the time this happens when the discs are worn and weakened and this allows for more movement than normal. This is mostly seen in athletes and in the elderly. The pain is a type of radiating pain from the back of the head down to the arms and hands. Most of the time the person has no signs or symptoms. In older people it may be detected in an x-ray.

The last type I will describe