22% of vertebral disease patients are in their 20s and 40s for leg twisting and waist health 'worst'
Oct 21, 2024
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for leg twisting and waist health 'worst'" />Choi Doo-yong, a professor of neurosurgery at the Catholic University of Korea's Incheon St. Mary's Hospital, said, `Spine disease is accompanied by tremendous pain in a wide range from the waist to the hip and legs, and causes great discomfort in daily life.' `Even with proper lifestyle and simple stretching, you can strengthen muscle strength around the spinal joint and prevent spinal disease.'
◇ 9.6 million spinal cord patients last year...22 percent of people in their 20s and 40s
The number of patients with spinal diseases in Korea is steadily increasing. According to the Health Insurance Review and Assessment Service, the number of spinal disease patients last year (2023) was 9,596,890, an increase of 14.3% and 1.2 million over the past seven years from 8,397,832 in 2016. Including 2,641,777 patients with cervical disease last year, the number of patients will increase to 12.24 million. In other words, one in four people in Korea visited the hospital due to spinal disease.
The problem is that recently, spinal diseases are easily observed even in young people. In fact, when looking at the distribution of patients by age group of spinal diseases, the proportion of young spinal diseases in their 20s and 40s
accounts for about 22% as of 2023. Professor Choi Doo-yong analyzed that the number of young spinal patients in their 20s and 40s
has recently increased significantly due to various causes such as excessive use of smartphones and tablet PCs, wrong lifestyle or long sitting environments, increasing stress, and lack of exercise due to busy work or study.
◇ Intervertebral disc herniation, conservative treatment alone improves a significant number of symptoms
Spine disease is typical of intervertebral disc herniation, spinal canal stenosis, and spinal anterior dislocation. Intervertebral disc herniation is a disease well known as 'disc'. Back pain and radiating pain along the nerve are characterized by physical stimulation caused by the escaped intervertebral disc and chemical stimulation caused by inflammation around the nerve. Radiating pain is mainly identified in the arms and hands for cervical vertebrae and in the legs and feet for lumbar vertebrae. Rarely, it can compress the central nerve itself, even causing serious symptoms such as quadriplegia or urine disorder.
In most cases of intervertebral disc herniation, which is not severe, symptoms often improve on their own without surgical treatment. It can be healed naturally simply by taking a rest, and symptoms improve in many cases with so-called conservative treatments such as drug therapy, physical therapy, and exercise therapy. However, if these treatments do not have satisfactory effects or are painful enough to interfere with life, injection therapy such as epidural injection or neuromuscular blocking can be attempted.
Surgical treatment is considered when pain does not improve or worsen even with conservative treatment or injection therapy, or when limb muscle strength is weakened as well as pain. In the case of lumbar spine, surgery is generally performed to remove only the escaped intervertebral disc using a microsurgical microscope or endoscope. Cervical vertebrae generally remove the entire intervertebral disc of the node and perform spinal union that combines the two vertebrae into one, but there are also many surgical methods to preserve spinal movement using artificial disks. In addition, minimally invasive surgery using an endoscope or microscope is sometimes performed.
◇ Conservative treatment if spinal stenosis occurs in the lumbar spine... cervical surgery
If the spinal or surrounding ligaments undergo unusually severe degenerative changes, parts of the bone grow and the ligaments thicken. As a result, the spinal canal through which the spinal nerve passes narrows and compresses the nerves in it, which is called spinal stenosis.
Spinal canal stenosis, which occurs in the lower back, usually occurs between lumbar vertebrae 4 and 5. Fortunately, there is no spinal cord, which is a central nerve, and only peripheral nerve bundles exist in this area, so even if the degree of pressure is severe, patients often do not feel any symptoms.
A typical symptom of spinal stenosis is leg pain that worsens when walking. It is difficult to walk due to pain, numbness, and muscle weakness in the lower extremities of the hip where the nerves pressed in the stenosis pass. At this time, bending or sitting at the waist relieves pain.
Conservative treatment through injection therapy such as medication or nerve block is first attempted, and then surgical treatment is considered if pain reduction is ineffective or paraplegia or walking disability occurs. On the other hand, spinal stenosis (cervical spondylosis), which occurs in the cervical spine, is difficult to prevent the deterioration of the disease with conservative treatment, and does not recover once the nerve is damaged. You must get surgical treatment.
Professor Choi Doo-yong said, `The cervical spine often directly compresses the spinal cord because the spinal cord, the central nerve, occupies most of the space in the spinal canal. In severe cases, pressure or damage to the spinal nerve makes it difficult to shake delicate fingers along with weakening of the strength of the hand or arm, and it is often accompanied by paralysis such as loss of balance in the lower extremities and walking disorders.'
◇ Treatment varies depending on the degree of spinal dislocation and bone slip
Spine dislocation refers to a disease in which one vertebral body is displaced forward (forward) or backward (rear potential) than the adjacent vertebral body due to misalignment of the adjacent vertebral body. It is also called 'spinal slip' or 'spinal detachment' because the spine is pushed out, and it occurs when the joint protrusions are damaged by nature or the upper and lower vertebral connections are weakened due to trauma or spinal degeneration. Aging is the biggest cause, and it occurs frequently in the elderly and women in their 50s and 60s, but recently it also occurs frequently in office workers who sit and work for a long time.
Spondylolisthesis can occur at any part of the spine, but it is especially common in the lumbar spine. In general, they complain of back pain and numbness in their legs, and in severe cases, they may cause paralysis of the hips or lower extremities. The diagnosis is mainly made by X-Ray to examine and diagnose how much the bone slides, which divides the upper surface of the vertebrae below the pushed vertebrae into four grades and evaluates how far they are pushed out by each grade. Conservative treatment is prioritized up to the second stage, which is less than 50%, but surgery may be considered depending on symptoms, such as severe nerve pressure or joint instability.
◇ Correct posture is the way to prevent... Leg-crossing Habits, Back Health Best Enemy
Prevention is the first step in taking the right posture. First, the sitting position sits deep in the chair so that the hips are in close contact with the backrest, and the angle of the bent knee is maintained at 90 degrees. The habit of sitting cross-legged when sitting is the best enemy for your back. The habit of crossing your legs for a long time can cause pain around your back and pelvis and even lead to spinal deformities.
Sleeping posture is also important. Use solid bedding with about 1 to 2cm of sinking hips, and choose a low and fluffy pillow that is about the height of the neck above the shoulders when lying down, but being able to support the head and shoulders reduces the burden on the neck and waist. Above all, it is better to move your body often and increase your walking time. I recommend walking more than three times a week to help strengthen the spine or back, walking slightly faster for 40-50 minutes.
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for leg twisting and waist health 'worst'" />bellho@sportschosun.com
