Cervical spondylosis a special type of arthritis. The region of its occurrence is in the cervical vertebrae and the problem is more prevalent in men who belong to the middle age groups. In the language of Ayurveda, this problem is known as Greeva graham. The condition falls under the category of Vata condition.

What are the causes of cervical spondylosis?
The several factors that cause cervical spondylosis are as follows:

When the Vata Dosha increases in magnitude, the tissues start degenerating even in the neck joints.
Intake of food that leads to the formation of gas in the body is also one of the reasons of cervical spondylosis.
When people take too many gaps during two consecutive meals, then it leads to the formation of gas as well which causes cervical spondylosis.
Those who have night shifts frequently have a tendency to develop cervical spondylosis.
Overindulgence in activities of mental, physical and sexual nature can also cause cervical spondylosis.
What are the symptoms of cervical spondylosis?
The main symptoms of cervical spondylosis are listed below.

A persistent headache is one of the most common symptoms.
People often complain of feeling a stiffness in the neck region in case of cervical spondylosis.
A numbness or tingling feeling in arms is also one of the symptoms of this condition.
The posterior region of your back and shoulders will also pain in case you develop cervical spondylosis.
People also find it difficult to walk at times and face a lack of coordination as well.
What are the Ayurvedic treatment measures for cervical spondylosis?
The main treatment measures in Ayurveda for cervical spondylosis are:

Mridu Shodhana   This procedure is also known as mild purgation. In this procedure, a mixture is made with milk or the fruit pulp of Cassia fistula and castor oil.
Greeva Basti   A black gram paste is applied to the back of the neck and this will aid in retaining the medicaments in that region. Several medicated oils like Ksheerbala oil are heated and then the compound helps in retaining this oil within it for a time. The reason for this is that when the heated oil is applied to that area, it helps in giving relief from disc herniation. The disc cartilage nourishment is improved and thus, the degeneration process of the tissues is reversed.
Secondary Ayurvedic procedures are also effective against cervical spondylosis. Some of these procedures are Patrapinda Sweda, Shirodhara, Abhyanga, and Pizhichil.
Pacifying Herbs   Some of the Ayurvedic herbs act as a pacifier in cervical spondylosis. These are Bala or Sida cordifolia, castor root or Ricinus communis, Amalaki or Emblica officinalis, Shunthi or ginger and Gambhari or Gmelina arborea.
Medicines   Some of the effective Ayurvedic medicines include Rasnairandadi kashaya, Yogaraja Guggulu and Sahacharadi Kashaya.
Above ayurvedic treatments not only give you relief from cervical spondylosis but also stop further degeneration of the affected tissues.

Cervical Spondylosis And Ayurveda - What To Know

Muscle sprains and ligament tears are one of the most common injuries that medical practitioners encounter on a regular basis. These injuries are painful and can also limit one s movement, needless to say. However, there are simple things that can be done as soon as the injury happens so that the impact of the injury can be reduced, the symptoms minimised, and recovery improved.

A sprain is a tear of the ligament. The ligament is responsible for connecting the tissue strands that connect the bone to the muscle. When this sprain affects the muscle or even the tendon, it is known as a strain.
Sprains are very common and can occur due to a fall, twist, or impact. Most commonly affected areas are the ankles and wrists. Sprains happen when there is a pull or a twist of the ankle or the joint. This is very common in athletes and can be caused by repetitive motions in the knees, wrists, elbows, etc.

The most common symptom is pain, swelling, limited movement, and sometimes bruising. The degree of these injuries depends on its severity. The most common ways to treat such injuries are as follows.

RICE therapy: RICE is an acronym for rest, ice, compress, and elevate. Rest the affected area immediately by stopping any further activity. Ice the area using an ice wrap, with the ice cubes wrapped in a towel or a cotton cloth. Repeat this exercise if possible for every 20 minutes. This will reduce the swelling and pain. Compress the area using a sling or a wrap. This will help in reducing the swelling. Elevate the affected area if possible above the heart. This will help control the blood flow and thereby reduce the swelling and pain.
Pain control: If there is pain that needs medication, go for the non-steroidal drugs like ibuprofen or acetaminophen. If it is a child that is injured, it is advisable to give non-aspirin ones.
Seek professional help: Most sprains can be self-limiting over a couple of days. However, it is advisable to seek medical help if there is significant pain, swelling, or numbness, open wounds or bruises, or inability to move the joint.
The doctor may decide to do the following.

Scanning or imaging to rule out any internal hard/soft tissue injury like fracture or tear
Immobilise the joint with a splint or a cast
Start physical therapy if there is severe pain and immobility
Surgical repair if there is a ligament injury
A word of caution to athletes or people who are very active physically is to go easy on the joint. In an eagerness to quickly get back to their routine, more and severe damage may be caused. This can be avoided by allowing time for complete healing.

Muscle & Ligament Sprain - Tips To Help You Deal With It!

A broken bone or a fracture can be painful and it requires medical attention for the fracture to heal properly. Proper healing is necessary for the right alignment of the bone. A doctor chooses to either reduce or set the bone in terms of new alignment. The bone reduction can happen manually or surgically depending on the severity of the injury. A Surgical procedure known as the open reduction internal fixation is performed for serious fractures. It ensures that the all the broken pieces are fixed together and the injury can heal properly.
Post the fracture, the bone need to be immobilised for proper healing. This is generally achieved by imposing a cast. For fractures that are not severe in nature, a doctor might choose to impose a temporary cast so that simple motion can happen around the site of the injury. For serious fractures, a permanent cast is placed around the injury site. In the case of a shoulder injury, a patient is required to wear a sling so that the bones are immobilised.


Time Duration of a Therapy Session:
While the exact duration of physiotherapy can vary from individual to individual, it takes a minimum of 2-8 weeks for the fracture to completely heal. Certain fractures take more time to heal. The rate of healing also depends on the severity of the injury, pain threshold level of the patient, extent of work with the physiotherapist, the robustness of the physiotherapy program, extent of the injury of the soft tissue and certain other factors. Typically shoulder and neck injuries heal quicker than a fracture of the legs. The time duration of fracture healing also depends on the type of bone that has been affected.


Physiotherapy in a Hospital:
If the fracture happens in the ankle or leg, a physiotherapist might have to intervene in the hospital in order to teach patient about using assistive devices such as crutches and cane. Things that are taught during this time include using the device in order to climb stairs, right walking posture, getting into a car, taking the device off while sitting and such other techniques.


Physiotherapy at Home:
Physiotherapy can also happen from home if the doctor specifically instructs to do the same. This is typically done for people where the condition is too serious to go outside and get the physiotherapy done. Certain weight bearing restrictions are imposed around this time. The training remains the same as in the case with a hospital.


In the Clinic:
Once the patient becomes mobile enough, a doctor might suggest a patient go to a clinic to get the physiotherapy done. A physiotherapist evaluates certain things such as pain, range of motion, gait, flexibility etc. of the patient before suggesting a certain exercise plan. 




How Long Do You Need Physiotherapy Post-Fractures?

If you are an avid runner, then you might also be well aware of the type of running injuries one is prone to. It might be foolish to say that running injuries can be prevented. It is because these injuries do happen quite often. Though these cannot be prevented, these can definitely be treated. Furthermore, precautions from your side can always be taken to make sure that these injuries do not cause a major impact on your health and can be cured without much of a hassle. Here are some important points that you need to remember to avoid running injuries or to lessen their adverse impact on your body.


Flexible Body: Flexibility is an important part of a runner s body. You not only need to have the stamina to run, but also must possess flexible features to get you out swiftly from any serious damage. Flexibility is attained when you do regular exercises and stretching in particular. It makes your muscles resilient towards many injuries and provides your body a better shape and long lasting stamina as well.
Strengthen Your Body: Body strength is required if you want to avoid any sports injuries. Special strength training sessions are organised with the coaches of sportspersons. These sessions help in building up muscle strength. This would, in turn, lessen muscle fatigue and make you able enough to perform better.
Balanced Diet: It does not matter whether you are an athletic or not, a balanced diet is needed for everyone. Balanced diet does not mean picking and choosing of food. It means a proper diet chart, mapping everything that your body needs to stay fit. Furthermore, it should contain ample amount of water to keep you hydrated.
Take Rest When Required: It is often said by the elders that too much of work would ruin your health and body. Thus, even for the athletes, it is important to take rest in between periods of heavy training sessions. This would give you a chance to relax your body and relieve you of all the stress. Furthermore, if you are injured or hurt, it would give you ample time to recover from your injuries.
Wear Proper Shoes: As a runner, you need to take care of all parts of your body. This would also include your legs. To prevent any sprains or muscle injury in the leg and to practice for long hours, proper running shoes are needed.  


How To Avoid Running Injuries?

Fractures are simply a break in a bone. They can be caused due to injury, (traumatic fractures) or a pre-existing condition like osteoporosis that causes weakening of bones (pathologic fractures). There are many ways to classify fractures. All fractures fall into the major categories of simple and compound fractures. Simple fractures are fractures where bones remain inside the skin and don t jut out. They are also called closed fractures.

Compound fractures, also called open fractures, are broken bones that penetrate through the skin. These types expose the bone and deep tissues to the environment. Compound fractures are more serious of the two. The healing here may be affected due to deep infections for which antibiotics need to be used. There are many different sub types of fractures and we re only going to skim through them here.

Comminuted fractures: Severe fractures in which a bone breaks into several smaller pieces.
Avulsion fractures: A small piece of bone is completely torn off from the main bone due to fierce pulling off a part of the body.
Other types of fractures are characterised by the many different angles the bone breaks into like transverse, oblique and spiral fractures.

Diagnosis
When a bone is broken there are symptoms like swelling that doesn t subside on its own and pain. In such a case it s imperative that one goes to a doctor for a diagnosis. Doctors can usually recognise most fractures by examining the injury and taking an X-ray. The X-ray also provides a clear idea about the type of fracture and the degree of displacement of the bone. And, it s important that the patient doesn t wait too long before approaching a doctor. This is because bones begin to heal very quickly after a fracture and the bone tissue will heal using any tissue available. This can lead to a misalignment of broken pieces of bone and cause disability and loss of function.

There are cases when X-ray may not show a fracture. This is especially common in fractures in the hip and wrist in older people. For diagnosing these, doctors will get some other tests done such as a computed tomography (CT) scan, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or a bone scan.

Treatments
Fractures have to be treated by doctors. The doctors set the fractured bones in their proper place and hold them there so that they can heal. Setting a bone is called "reduction." Reduction without surgery is called "closed reduction." But if the fracture is serious, it s going to require surgery with bone repositioning, called open reduction.

In extreme cases, pins, plates, screws, rods, or glue are used to hold the fractured bones in place, inside the body. Once the bone abutment has been treated, the bone is immobilised to allow the broken pieces to heal. In most cases, the fractured part is set in a rigid cast. The fractured ends of the bone can be fixed into place using metal pins connected to an external frame. This is removed after the bone has healed.

Fractures - How To Diagnose Them?

Frozen shoulder is a condition where the patient encounters continuous shoulder stiffness and pain. It could last for several weeks. Inflammation around the shoulder increases the inability to move or stretch properly. This happens when somebody is recovering from an injury. Frozen shoulder can also occur when somebody is wearing a sling or a cast. It also occurs if someone is recovering from surgery or experiencing joint pain. It may also be experienced as a symptom of thyroid, joint disorders or diabetes.

Some of the causes and risk factors for creating a frozen shoulder are as follows:

    If you are 40 years or older, your chances of a frozen shoulder are higher than others
    Recovering from a damage or surgery
    Hormonal imbalance
    Ladies are more prone to a frozen shoulder
    Cervical disc infection that influences the nerves around the shoulder
    Not moving your arm because of other pain or wounds
    Having a previous medical condition like diabetes or other heart diseases
    Open-heart surgery or spinal surgeries
    Poor diet and unhealthy lifestyle

The most widely recognized symptoms of a frozen shoulder include:

    Stiffness around the shoulder usually happens in one shoulder at a time (not both) and will probably return in the same shoulder. Muscle, joint and bone agony in and around the shoulders or arms may be experienced.
    Restricted scope of movement
    Having difficulty moving and using the shoulders or arms ordinarily, (for example, experiencing difficulty in getting dressed, driving, holding objects before you, and gestures.)

Treatment:

    Stretch the Shoulder: Before beginning shoulder exercises for a frozen shoulder, try to warm up your shoulder by doing a few warm up exercises. This will improve the blood supply in the affected area and avoid future injuries by making your body more comfortable with the motion. The best approach is to extend and warm up the shoulder by applying heat for 10 to 15 minutes, scrubbing down or showering with Epsom salt.
    Non-intrusive treatment: While these activities mentioned above can be easily performed at home, if pain continues and makes it difficult to move around or work ordinarily, see a physiotherapist who can appoint particular activities and can enhance your scope of movement, flexibility and strength.
    Acupuncture: Acupuncture is considered one of the best treatment choices for any joint and nerve related problem. The treatment is based on focusing on the trigger points of the pain and putting pressure on them via needles. The treatment is not painful and is known to produce good results in the long run.
    Dietary Supplements: Various supplements can be taken with the recommendation of a doctor, in order to improve recovery. Alfalfa (horse feed) and turmeric are two of the most regularly recommended elements that relieve swelling and repair the tissue in the shoulder.

Best Remedies for a Frozen Shoulder

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