Do cervical spine exercises carelessly lead to stroke?

For the elderly, it is not exaggeration to say that everyone has cervical spondylosis, but there are differences in the degree between individuals.

In order to “prevent and treat” cervical spondylosis, many elderly people do cervical exercises every day, such as forward flexion, backward flexion, lateral flexion and rotation. But in fact, doing cervical spine exercises may not be beneficial, but may also be harmful.

The boss of a state-owned enterprise, 57 years old this year, suddenly felt dizzy, blurred vision and weak right limb mobility when he got up in the morning to do cervical exercises. The examination at the hospital found that there was a fresh ischemic focus in the left cerebral hemisphere, and the intima at the bifurcation of the neck artery was thickened, atherosclerotic plaques formed and became narrow. The doctor finally diagnosed him as an acute stroke caused by cervical spine exercises.

How can doing cervical exercises cause stroke?

Straightening of cervical curvature, hyperosteogeny and intervertebral disc herniation are the characteristics of cervical spondylosis. If you have cervical spondylosis, when you move around the neck, the vertebral artery will be directly or indirectly stimulated by these pathological changes, resulting in spasticity, distortion and deformation, causing hemodynamic changes, and then inducing stroke.

In addition, most of the elderly have arteriosclerosis, and their common diseases, such as hypertension and hyperlipidemia, will aggravate the pathological process of arteriosclerosis. When the neck is moving, pulling or twisting the blood vessels can not only block the blood flow, but also cause the atherosclerotic plaques to fall off and break, form embolism, and induce stroke. In particular, cold weather will cause protective contraction of neck muscles, fatigue can lead to increased vascular tension, which will induce or aggravate insufficient blood supply to the brain and increase the probability of stroke.

Therefore, it is recommended that patients with cervical spondylosis, especially those with carotid artery stenosis or atherosclerotic plaque formation, should do cervical exercises with caution, preferably not, and pay attention to neck warmth is the best choice.