Can cervical spondylosis cause headaches?

Cervical spondylosis is not unfamiliar to many people. People who sit for a long time are at high risk of suffering from cervical spondylosis. White-collar workers and some overworked workers are more common. But the most terrifying thing is not just cervical spondylosis itself, the most terrifying thing is that cervical spondylosis often causes various complications. However, most people do not know much about the complications of cervical spondylosis. I don't know if it will cause headaches.

So what are the complications of cervical spondylosis? Many people know little about whether family members with this disease will suffer from headaches, but for families with someone suffering from this disease, it is very necessary to understand these issues.

Cervical spondylosis is caused by cervical vertebral bone hyperplasia or disc herniation compressing nearby nerve tissue. Among the headache patients in the pain clinic, nearly 80% of headaches are closely related to cervical spine diseases. For example, 70%-80% of patients with tension headaches (pain as if the head is tightly clamped) are caused by cervical spondylosis, and more than half of patients with cluster headaches and migraines are caused by cervical spondylosis. Why can cervical spondylosis also cause headaches?

Clinically, headaches caused by cervical spondylosis are mainly caused by the following 5 reasons:

① Because cervical spondylosis involves the neck muscles, it causes persistent spasmodic contraction of the neck muscles, leading to muscle blood circulation disorders, which can release pathogenic substances such as lactic acid, 5-hydroxytryptamine, and bradykinin, causing headaches.

② Cervical spondylosis directly stimulates, compresses or pulls the headache-sensitive tissues in the head, causing headaches.

③ The lesions stimulate, compress or damage the first, second and third cervical nerves and cause headaches, especially in the occipital region. The pain may also radiate to the head through the reflex action of the trigeminal nucleus of the medulla oblongata or spinal cord.

④ The lesion can stimulate or compress the sympathetic plexus around the vertebral artery or other sympathetic nerves in the neck, causing vasodilation and contraction disorders in the vertebral-basilar artery system or intracranial and extracranial arteries and producing headaches.

⑤ Patients with pushing pulse type cervical spondylosis suffer from headaches because the lesions directly affect the pushing pulse, causing insufficient blood supply to the vertebral-basilar artery system. Through the introduction of the above content, we can understand that there are many complications of cervical spondylosis, and headache is one of them. People who have learned the relevant knowledge will not underestimate cervical spondylosis, because many complications of cervical spondylosis are not as simple as headaches. Once the situation is serious, you must seek medical attention in time.