Cervical Herniated Disc: Causes, Symptoms, And Treatment

Pain in the neck, shoulder or arms is quite common these days. This is sometimes caused due to cervical herniated disc. The problem is so common that it seems to be normal as large percentage of people have disc herniations in their spines. The cervical herniated disc problem is mostly found in people between 30-50 years.

Causes There are many factors that cause a cervical herniated disc. The condition might develop due to:

* Your lifestyle has a great effect on your cervical disc. Excessive use of tobacco, lack of exercise, deficiency of essential nutrients, etc affect the condition of your disc.

* With age, biochemical changes take place in your body. It leads to drying of disc which affects its strength.

* Wrong or bad posture also causes cervical herniated disc condition.

* Incorrect lifting of luggage, daily wear and tear, injury, etc. also cause a cervical herniated disc.

Symptoms

In some cases, a cervical herniated disc occurs due to some sort of trauma or injury in the cervical spine. This condition has causes pain and has the following neurological effects:

* C4 - C5 (C5 nerve root) - You might feel weak in the upper arm especially in the deltoid muscle. It leads to pain in shoulder.

* C5 - C6 (C6 nerve root) This is the most common cervical herniated disc. You may feel loss of energy in biceps and in wrist extensor muscle. Numbness and tingling are also caused.

* C6 - C7 (C7 nerve root) You might suffer from weakness in the finger extensor muscle and triceps. Pain along with numbness and tingling move from triceps into the middle finger. This is a common disorder.

* C7 - T1 (C8 nerve root) Handgrip can lead you to weakness. Pain along with tingling and numbness radiate from arm to the little finger of the hand.

Some of the other symptoms are:

* Dull or severe pain in neck

* Pain in shoulder blades

* Pain that runs form arm to fingers or hand

* Numbness

* Tingling in shoulder or arm

Cervical disc herniation occurs in four steps: 1. Degeneration of disc: With age, the disc gets weaker due to chemical changes. 2. Prolapse: Is known as bulge or protrusion. The disc tends to change its shape and impinges on the nerve roots in the spinal cord. 3. Extrusion: From the tire-like wall (annulus fibrous), a gel-like nucleus pulposus breaks down but is within the disc. 4. Sequestered Disc: This is the last stage in which nucleus pulpous comes out from annulus fibrosus and lies outside the spinal canal.

Treatment: The doctor decides on the course of treatment after diagnosis is positive, and evaluates how to treat the patient. If your pain is mild or moderate, then it can be treated with exercise or oral medication. If the pain is severe, then you might be advised to undergo surgery.

Degenerative Spine