Onwards and upwards. I'm in the zone now. The other night I kept myself awake for hours thinking about this next bit...but it was constructive thinking and I felt quite good about where it was heading. The theme was \"What exactly is Cervical Spondylosis, what are it's causes and symptoms, and are the bodies natural healing powers capable of dealing with it, given the right circumstances\". The Biggy..Heh? So, here goes.
1: What is C/S? At some time, two bones in the neck vertebrae have clashed together causing slight splintering at the ends (which may still be lodged in the surrounding tissue) and leaving jagged ends on one, or both, vertebrae bones. The tissue ( muscle mostly) would normally try to remove any foreign bodies but, because the splinters are bone, it might not react as it would (bone being a recognisable matter which belongs in the body) and chooses to ignore. The jagged ends will, over time, try to mend themselves (the wonders of DNA) and probably include a tendency to overcompensate, as happens with bone fractures/breaks in other parts of the body. So, the meeting vertebrae may have evolved to be too big for comfort. The vertebrae, themselves, are not a direct source of pain. It is their interaction with the surrounding tissue and nerves which we know as the chronic painful condition Cervical Spondylosis. Please remember, I'm just an amateur trying to rationalise something which, I feel, has never been explained to me satisfactorally. Anybody, out there, who knows better...I'm all ears ( or eyes, in this case).
2: Symptoms. ( I almost set my notes alight just now with an inappropiately held ciggy...Is that a symptom? Also, I've just admitted that I use notes...Is that a problem? ). Seriously, I need to discard any symptoms which might confuse the issue of where the source of pain is. Any pains/aches in shoulder, arms, hands, chest etc. are referred pains, a result of nerve pinching by either bone, or tissue, or muscle in the neck. Those areas, shoulder, chest etc. are most likely perfectly ok. It is just a false signal from the nervous system to the brain. I interpret this as the nerve throwing the rattle out of the pram because it knows it is in danger (in the neck) and it is trying desperately to draw attention to it's plight. For some reason, the only way it can do this is by causing chaos elsewhere, in the hope that we can decipher it's confused messages and proceed to protect the neck from further aggravation. Sciatica in the leg is similar. So, we know the problem is in the neck...thus we can discard these referred sympyoms as useless in determining a solution for the neck.
Likewise, any headaches, muggyhead, dizzyness are caused by over-stiffening of the neck muscles at the base of the skull which, in turn, is a natural protective action, by the neck muscle, to minimise any neck/head movement which might result in further aggravation at the source of the problem. These too may be discarded for investigative purposes.
Now that we have got rid of the Great Confusors, we can deal with the real problem. Really, I know it is difficult to ignore these painful symptoms and I am expecting a lot of flak in response (go easy, Im just trying to think outside the box)...but they are false indicators. I swear, I am not in denial of any c/s sufferer's pains. Also, I am only dealing with c/s at the rear of the neck (c4,c5,c6) here, as this is all I'm familiar with. But the same logic could be applied to c/s in other areas (side or front of neck) I'm sure. I will call the prime source of the pain, the only damaged area, the \"P Spot\" for convenience.
It seems, to me, that tilting the head upwards and backwards, raising the arms above shoulder height to work, or lifting awkward things are the main culprits in aggravating the P Spot. We may not feel it at the time, but the repercussions will kick in, without fail, and continue to cause havoc long after the initial aggravation. Also, when
