Cervical Myelopathy

Cervical Spinal cord is the first connection between brain and rest of the spine. Cervical Myelopathy is a condition where cord get swallowed. This happens because of compression on the cord. Mostly pressure from a bulged disc causes this condition. Because cervical spine carries the “orders” for the muscles, therefore this condition impacts the body on sensory and motor levels. Ayurveda is the most helpful to treat the condition of the cervical myelopathy. This page is all about discussion of ayurvedic treatment of cervical myelopathy.

What is Myelopathy

Myelopathy is neurologic deficit related to the spinal cord. Myelopathy usually occurs due to compression of the spinal cord.

Common causes of myelopathy are-

• Carcinoma metastatic to bone
• Any penetrating trauma.
• Cancerous growth, causing pressure on the spinal cord.
• Infections in the spine.
• Inflammatory changes with in the spine.
• Neurodegenerative changes, causing compression on spinal cord.
• Problems with the vasculature of the spinal cord- cord ischemia etc.
• There are some nutritional disorders too, which can lead to the condition of cervical myelopathy.

Though these all causes are there but the most common reason behind the problem of myelopathy is- extruded discs and osteophytes of the bone.

Cervical Myelopathy: Swollen Spinal Cord in Cervical Region.

When myelopathy occurs in the cervical region, this is Cervical Myelopathy. Therefore, when myelopathy occurs in cervical spinal cord, the condition is medically known as cervical myelopathy.

In Cervical spine this compression comes due osteophyte or extruded discs.

Symptoms of Cervical Myelopathy

• Pain and stiffness in neck
  • Axial neck pain: there will be pain and soreness in the back of neck and shoulders.
  • Headache: cervicogenic headache – which starts from the neck and goes to the head.
• Numbness in the upper and lower limbs.
  • Numbness and tingling in the upper and lower limbs.
  • The Numbness spreads to the whole limb.
• Muscular Weakness
  • Patient cannot hold the things.
  • Weakness while moving muscles.  
• Instability in walking  
  • patient falls while walking and cannot control the feeling.
  • weakness walking up and down stairs
  • gait changes are most important clinical predictor
• Urinary retention
  • rare and only appear late in disease progression
  • not very useful in diagnosis due to high prevalence of urinary conditions in this patient population

So the problem is severe and can lead to many complications for the patient.

The main aim of the treatment in such condition is to make sure that these symptoms will not progress further and a patient can lead to normal life. Surgery might be a solution for this condition, when there is a fracture or some carcinoma causes the condition. But not in the cervical spinal disc issues.

Ayurveda Treatment for Cervical Myelopathy

There are two components of the Ayurveda treatment for cervical myelopathy.

1. To remove the pressure from the spinal cord, which leads to the cervical myelopathy.
2. To reduce the swelling of the spinal cord.

These two steps are complementary to each other. Without removing the pressure, it is not possible to reduce the swelling. We follow the Ayurvedic approach for the treatment of this condition.

Most of the cases we take for the cervical myelopathy are the cases where cervical spinal discs causes this condition. Here we work on the following points, one by one-

1. Relaxation of the muscles
2. Restoration of the disc back to normal.
3. Reducing the swelling of the cervical spinal cord.
4. Restoring the normal neural working of the nervous system.

This four steps treatment we offer through Ayurveda medicines, Panchakarma and Yoga.

Outcome of Ayurveda Treatment for Cervical Myelopathy

As discussed above, the main focus of the treatment is to bring back the normalcy of the neural tissues. So that all the signs and symptoms can reduce and a patient can lead a normal life.

Some people think surgery can assist with the treatment of this condition. But surgery do have limitation. With surgical intervention one can reduce the pressure from the nerves, but there is no way to restore the normalcy of the nerves and to reduce the swelling with surgery. Ayurveda has a virtue in this.

With Ayurvedic treatment planning for cervical myelopathy, it becomes easy to restore the normalcy of the neural tissue.

This case of Ramesh bhai from Gujarat is a live example for the same. First he opted for surgery, but after surgery he couldn’t get any solution of the myelopathy. And later he opted for Ayurveda treatment at Sukhayu and now he is leading a normal life.

This type of results are possible through Ayurvedic treatment, where allopathic surgical interventions cannot help a patient.

Line of Treatment for cervical myelopathy

The biggest challenge for the treatment of the cervical myelopathy is to restore the normalcy of the nerves. This is a tedious work to do and a very much high aim to achieve. Because of this, the treatment of cervical myelopathy is bit longer with Ayurveda.

The exact length of the treatment can be decided after checking the condition of the patient as well as after studying the MRI scans. Because length of the myelopathic changes is important to know in this condition. Longer the myelopathic region lengthier will be the treatment of the lesion.

A patient need to admit in the hospital for Intensive Panchakarma Care at Sukhayu for 21 days at first. Consecutive visits for Panchakarma are advised as per the requirement of the patient.

Medicines remain continue for the longer time like 12 to 18 months in such cases.

You can book an appointment and come for consultation. Please bring all your medical records, MRI films and all the documents with you for the consultations.