36 years
Effect of cervical osteophytes slight compression on the spinal cord on body posture and whether a minor Lel length discrepany of 7 mm and or internal femoral rotation can all affect person being
Aug 26, 2014
Poor body posture is a cause, not a result, of osteophyte overgrowth.
More than 50% of the population aged 60 and above have osteophytes, or bone spurs. Osteophytes in the spine are a normal consequence of aging and are not an alarming finding unless they are causing pain or neurological symptoms. When you hear the term "bone spurs", you would imagine radiating spikes, but bone spurs (osteophytes) are actually rounded.
Normally, the neck is very flexible. This ability is afforded by the various joints of the cervical spine.
Cervical osteophytes are bone spurs that grow on any of the seven vertebrae in the cervical spine (neck), involving the spine from the base of the skull to the base of the neck (C1 - C7 vertebrae). They typically form when ligaments and tendons around the bones and joints in the cervical spine are subjected to damage or inflammation. This inflammatory process negatively influences bone growth in the vicinity (though hard, bones are constantly renewing, like fingernails and hair). As a result, new bone cells are deposited where they would not normally grow.
Cervical osteoarthritis is the classical inflammatory condition that triggers cervical osteophyte growth is often; it is a degradation in the neck joints that occurs in many older people. These joints include the disc spaces themselves (a modified joint) and the facet joints, and this condition of cervical osteophyte formation is referred to as cervical spondylosis.
Other types of arthritis, traumatic injury, and poor posture can also lead to osteophyte formation.
Osteophytes are not painful in their own right. Many people with cervical bone spurs live normally withiout any pain or neurological symptoms. Neurological symptoms or pain do occur, however, if the osteophytes impinge upon the individual spinal nerves, the spinal cord itself, the vertebral discs, or the blood vessels in the region of the cervical vertebral column.
People who complain of symptoms associated with cervical bone spurs may exhibit a wide range of symptoms, such as:
• Dull neck pain
• Neck stiffness
• Headaches
• Radiating pain into the shoulders and/or arms
• Numbness or tingling in one or both arms and/or hands
• Progressive weakness in one or both arms and/or hands without or without impairment of finger and hand dexterity.
• In rare cases, progressive difficulty swallowing (dysphagia) or breathing.
Cervical stenosis means, literally, tightening or narrowing of the canal around the spinal cord. If the cervical stenosis is severe enough, it can ultimately lead to myelopathy of the spinal cord: the patient, typically in the late 6th to early 7th decade of life, often has complained of neck pain for many years. In some cases, the pain can actually be mild.
Cervical Spondylosis: this entity is a reflection of the natural aging process of our cervical spine. The term spondylosis refers to the bony overgrowths associated with aging of the spine. It is known that a large number of patients without any symptoms have spondylosis of the spine. In some people, however, spondylosis may be associated with neck pain. Spondylosis is likely the end result of disc degeneration that has been present for a very long time.
Part II of your question:
The prevalence of anatomic inequality between leg bone length was found to be 90%, the mean magnitude of anatomic inequality was 5.2 mm (+/- 4.1 mm). The evidence suggests that, for most people, anatomic leg-length inequality does not appear to be clinically significant until the magnitude reaches ~ 20 mm.
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