Neck Pain Support Blog

The Phases of Degeneration

Last time I talked about degeneration or arthritis, which I wanted to cover a bit more about, as well as talk about some of the symptoms of whiplash:

This is how arthritis forms. You see, it is the body's last resort mechanism to stabilize otherwise unstable ares. It pulls Calcium out of bone, making spurs. Those spurs will eventually come together causing what we call fusion. Arthritis goes in stages, phase I may be the start of breakdown but if we get to stage IV, we have fusion."

We actually describe 4 phases of degeneration. See diagram below. Phase I is the start of degeneration or arthritis. Bones may start to get some jagged edges but joint spaces still appeared normal and intact. The neck curvature may start to decrease and misalignments or more chronic. Phase II will start to show joint and disc deteriorating, and more substantial boney degeneration. Phase III we will see even more significant degeneration with loss of bone mass, even collapse of the most affected vertebrae, and the start of fusion. Phase IV we see all the breakdown in phase III plus permanent subluxations.

As you can imagine, we may start with occasional pain or health issues, as we start degeneration but as we move toward phase III or IV things become more chronic or permanent. Some of those typical symptoms may include neck pain, radiation of pain or numbness and tingling to the arms and/or hands, or headaches.

It really all depends on where exactly that nerve pressure is and how severe it is. Also, if it's been there a long time, problems have typically progressed. This gives us an idea of how long it may take to correct. Now if we get into the later phases, especially phase IV, things tend to be permanent and change is impossible.

Remember that a pain response is your body telling you something is wrong; work at fixing it before it's too late!

Additional Reading:

• How to Stop Degeneration in  your Neck Spine
• Choose the best pillow depending on what you have going on in your neck
• Neck Posture and how it affects how you look
• I’ve Got: Spondylosis, Spondylolithesis, Subluxation, Kyphosis, etc… What Can I Do To Get Rid Of It?
• Pinched nerve in the neck...what to do in this case

 

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Is It A Herniated Disc Or A Subluxation?

Which Pillow Should I Use For a Cervical Fusion in the Neck?

It Doesn't Take True Whiplash to Cause Neck Misalignment's...

Sure, if you get into a major car accident where you are hit pretty hard, your head flops back-and-forth or side to sign a few times. Is it going to cause pain? Will it alter your neck alignment? Most Likely!

One reason it causes pain and problems is that it will affect all the different tissues of the neck. It won't be only the bones of the spine, but you have muscles, tendons, ligaments, and more. When various areas get stressed and strained it makes it difficult for the body to hold adequate alignment. This will also slow the healing process.

Let's review some of the anatomy in the neck and the areas that tend to be most affected:  The first one is the spine. What we should normally have is a C curve in the neck, that "c" opened toward the back; looking at an x-ray, you can clearly see this from the side. When looking at the spine from the front or back, it should be straight up and down.

Any time you've misaligned the spine in some way, it leads to a greater chance of nerve pressure and therefore a greater chance for pain. Not only this but if you have misalignments then you can have or get something much worse. Some other ailment besides pain...

Let's also look at that the spine is similar to a set of building blocks. When you stack the blocks, if the base is not strong there is chance for collapse. The spine is much the same. If those spinal bones are all stacked up crooked on one another, or maybe built with a big side to side curvature, it will not be as stable and strong.

This is how arthritis forms. You see it is a body last resort mechanism to stabilize otherwise unstable ares. It pulls Calcium out of bone, making spurs. Those spurs will eventually come together causing what we call fusion. Arthritis goes in stages, phase I may be the start of breakdown but if we get to stage IV, we have fusion.

I will cover theses degenerative changes at a later date. Next week I will cover those other areas of the neck that are commonly affected in an accident, as well as some typical symptoms we may get, and what we can do to get rid of those symptoms.

Additional Reading:

• One Way to Sleep On your back and be comfortable at night
• What is normal neck alignment and what does it look like on x-ray?
• Understanding the Hunchback Posture and how to avoide it
• Upper cervical spine misalignments
• Products that work with the traction pillow for added benefit

Neck Pain and Anatomy of the Cervical Spine

Here is a great video that shows the neck anatomy and how discs can be a neck pain factor as well.

A disc, if injured, and that can be a herniation, bulge, or degeneration; we can get a multitude of symptoms. Keeping the neck mobile and in alignment tends to help hold the discs more stable in place.

Additional Reading:

• Symptoms of a herniated disk and what you can do
• Hump in the back of my neck..what is that?
• A pillow for neck pain that works for bulging disks
• Understanding ROM in your C Spine
• A Review of the arc4life alignment pillow