What is Cervical Arthritis?
Cervical arthritis is rather an unusual variant of Arthritis which is very dreadful when not treated properly. Also known as the cervical spondylosis, it affects the upper spine and the surrounding region. The main effect of this is the degeneration of the vertebrae near the neck region medically known as cervical vertebrae. This happens due to the erosion of the bone cartilage around this region. The erosion might be due to the aging process or result of an accident. Due to this, the space near the foramen is reduced which exerts a pressure on the nerves, in turn leading to the inflammation of these nerves leading to radiate severe pain across the neck and shoulder region.
Due to the aging process, everyone’s bone cartilage starts to erode over a period of time. This generally leads to some kind of joint disorder, which more than often turns out to be Arthritis. In most people, this generally starts at the age of 30-50. However, everyone with aging does not develop Cervical Arthritis.
To distinguish Cervical Arthritis from rest of the spinal disease is really hard. While, there is severe back pain associated with all of them, Cervical Arthritis will need a thorough examination. Once the cartilage near the neck begins to degenerate, this might provoke symptoms like sudden twist or falling off, leading to further injuries. Cervical arthritis can be found in young people as well who might develop this as a result of the cartilage damage which, might have been caused by some other physical injury. While it is known that more men than women are victimized by this disease, there are other forms of arthritis like rheumatoid arthritis and osteoporosis. While the former one is caused as a result of systemic disorder, the latter is caused by weak or damaged skeletal system.
Apart from the general symptoms of arthritis, Cervical Arthritis also shows several distinct symptoms. It includes discomfort and severe pain when trying to move the neck region, pain in the arms and at the finger tips and a result of stressed nerves, muscle weakness and numbness around the neck region, headache and loss of balance among others.
While the above mentioned are the direct result of the Cervical Arthritis, there are a lot of other long term effects of this. It causes several spinal cord and nerve disorders which are developed as a result of degenerated vertebrae. Development of osteophytes, which are a permanent change due to arthritis, cause congestion limiting the movement of the neck. Due to the limiting space and pressure applied on the spinal cord, there could be slipping of the soft cushioning, leading to a condition known as herniated disk. Though this is not progressive like the Arthritis itself, it could cause long term damage to the spinal cord. Another effect of the cervical Arthritis could be myelopathy which causes the compression in turn applying pressure on the long tracts of spinal cord. This could lead to general weakness and spasticity in long run.