Why does the cervical spine make a clicking sound when turning?

If you find that your cervical vertebrae make noises when they turn, you should pay attention to it. It is often caused by the neck muscles being too stiff, which is related to some bad habits in daily life, such as sitting for a long time, maintaining one posture while looking at a computer, or playing with a mobile phone. Especially looking at a mobile phone can cause excessive tension in the neck muscles and have a greater impact on the bones of the cervical vertebrae.

Why does the cervical spine make a clicking sound when turning?

If you maintain a posture for a long time, your neck will feel uncomfortable. Why does your neck make a cracking sound when you twist it? In fact, these sounds are caused by fatigue. Maintaining a posture for a long time will cause local muscle spasms and fluid accumulation. When the accumulated fluid around the small joints is squeezed from one side to the other due to movement, sounds will be made.

In addition, working at a desk for a long time will change the physiological curvature of the cervical spine, reducing the flexibility of the joints, causing small dislocations and frictions between bones when twisting, producing some noises; furthermore, working at a desk for a long time will lead to calcification of the posterior longitudinal ligament, muscle stiffness in the cervical spine, inflexibility of the neck when moving, and friction between the calcified tissue and the surrounding bone protrusions, causing some noises.

This is a diagram of the structure of the cervical spine. When viewed from the side, the cervical spine forms a curve that bulges toward the front of the body. This allows the cervical spine and intervertebral disc to be perfectly combined, with greater elasticity to resist the torque generated by the weight and movement of the head. The articular surfaces at the back of the neck are slanted upward, one on each side, and distributed symmetrically. Under the weight and torque of the head, it can only slide downward and backward along the joint surface, causing the lordotic curvature to disappear and even causing cervical kyphosis.

The crackling sound when you twist your neck is the body’s way of “protesting” against the disease. So what other common diseases of the cervical spine are there? The most common cervical spine disease is arthritis, and its important cause is cervical spine degeneration. Due to the reduction of synovial fluid in the joints of the elderly, the collision and friction between bones will produce noise and even pain. Young people, especially white-collar workers, often work at a desk and maintain a posture for a long time, which will cause local muscle spasms and gradually lead to bone degeneration.

However, after bone degeneration, bone hyperplasia will occur in some places. When the hyperplasia reaches a certain extent, problems such as cervical disc herniation and intervertebral nerve compression will occur. There are also intervertebral discs between the vertebrae, which contain water and gelatin. The intervertebral discs act like springs, cushioning the movement between the vertebrae.

When the intervertebral disc ages, it loses its elasticity and reduces its water content, which reduces its cushioning effect. The tissues around the patient's cervical spine are prone to rubbing and edema. At this time, the intervertebral disc is also prone to fatigue and bulging. If the direction of the bulge is backward, it can easily compress the spinal nerves and cause severe symptoms of spinal cord compression.