Osteochondrosis: what causes and how to treat

March 15, 2016, 7:05 p.m

Osteo­chon­dro­sis is not in vain called the dis­ease of our cen­tu­ry — it affects from 40% to 90% of peo­ple over 30 years old. How to get rid of back pain and what to do with osteo­chon­dro­sis?

This dis­ease (dam­age to the inter­ver­te­bral discs) is caused by an incor­rect, unnat­ur­al way of life for a per­son. When there is lit­tle time left for sports, out­door walks and too much time for sit­ting in front of the TV or com­put­er, as well as dry snacks.

Causes of osteochondrosis

A seden­tary lifestyle, over­weight, the use of large amounts of salt, mari­nades, smoked meats, etc., stress, lack of sleep, as well as hered­i­tary pre­dis­po­si­tion — all these fac­tors con­tribute to the devel­op­ment of osteo­chon­dro­sis.

How to treat osteochondrosis

The main sign of osteo­chon­dro­sis is pain in the affect­ed area of ​​the spine — in the neck, low­er back, etc. X‑rays and MRI can be used to diag­nose the dis­ease. The treat­ment itself should include the fol­low­ing:
• nor­mal­iza­tion of sleep and rest, walks in the fresh air;
• phys­i­cal activ­i­ty: morn­ing exer­cis­es, swim­ming in the pool, yoga, just walk­ing up the stairs;
• weight cor­rec­tion;
• phys­io­ther­a­py and mas­sage;
• drug ther­a­py.

How to eat with osteochondrosis

• With osteo­chon­dro­sis, it is desir­able to eat frac­tion­al­ly — often, but in small por­tions.
• The culi­nary pro­cess­ing of food also mat­ters. Fish and meat should be boiled, stewed, baked or steamed.
Veg­eta­bles and cere­als need to be well boiled.
• It is very impor­tant to lim­it table salt and com­plete­ly exclude pick­les, mari­nades and smoked meats. As well as car­bo­hy­drates, lead­ing to weight gain.
• Allowed durum wheat pas­ta, bran bread, lean meat and fish, seafood.
• Under the ban meat broths, all soups must be veg­e­tar­i­an, and boiled meat can be added direct­ly to the plate before serv­ing.
• The most use­ful for osteo­chon­dro­sis are fruits, berries, veg­eta­bles, dairy prod­ucts.

Home remedies for osteochondrosis

1. Chest­nut oint­ment. Take equal­ly cam­phor oil and melt­ed lard, heat in a water bath and mix with the same amount of crushed peeled horse chest­nuts. Then remove from the stove — let the prod­uct cool down at room tem­per­a­ture. Apply the oint­ment to the sore spot with mas­sag­ing move­ments every day before going to bed for 2 weeks. After a month break, you can repeat the course of treat­ment.

2. Baths with sea salt. Pour sea salt into a warm bath. You can also add a decoc­tion of chamomile, mint or laven­der.
Take a heal­ing bath for 20 min­utes. Then rub your­self with a tow­el and go to bed.

3. Mas­sage with herbs. Take in equal parts St. John’s wort, mint, chamomile and cal­en­du­la. Pour 1 table­spoon of the mix­ture with 100 ml of boil­ing water and let it brew for an hour. Strain. Use the decoc­tion when mas­sag­ing the neck and back. The dura­tion of the course is 2 weeks.

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