24-Hour Health Station Blog
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24-Hour Cervical Spine Care Method
It is always better to be proactive than to react. Instead of waiting for your cervical spine to be injured and then undergoing long and tedious treatment, it is better to take the initiative and actively care for your cervical spine with meticulous attention.
7:00 AM – Proactively Adjust Temperature in the Morning
The ancients liked to wear long robes, not only for etiquette but also for health preservation. In both winter and summer, you must provide your cervical spine with a comfortable temperature. Even for the sake of beauty, keep a shawl in the office to protect your neck and back. If you ever catch a chill, make a bowl of cold-dispelling soup for yourself: the ingredients are 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 7 slices of ginger. Boil in water for 10 minutes. Drinking it 1-2 times can dispel the cold.
10:00 AM – 5 Minutes of Cervical Spine Exercises
Even in a crowded office, you can effectively care for your cervical spine. For example, use your break to practice some cervical exercises: sit upright, keep your body still, and move only your head. Perform the following movements: lower your head, raise your head, turn left, turn right, extend forward, and retract backward. Also, perform clockwise and counter-clockwise circular motions. Hold each position for 5 minutes, and keep the movements gentle and slow.
2:00 PM – Two Massage Methods
After a morning of work, by 2:00 PM, your neck is probably exhausted and your energy may be flagging. Here are two simple first-aid methods:
1. On the back of your neck, there are three points of the Ba Lao acupressure points, distributed from the base of the skull to the upper torso. When you are working hard, take a few minutes to massage these three pressure points. This will immediately relieve cervical fatigue and relax your whole body.
2. Interlace your fingers and place them on the back of your neck. Rub your neck back and forth gently. Do this 50 times continuously. Once your neck feels warm, you will experience a great sense of relaxation and comfort.
6:00 PM – Get Some Outdoor Exercise
The nutrition for cartilage tissue is not supplied by blood, but through changes in pressure for nutrient exchange. If you lack activity, the cartilage will suffer from malnutrition, which can lead to degeneration. Increasing outdoor activity is one way to care for your cervical spine. The sports I recommend to you are swimming, playing ball, flying a kite, and practicing yoga.
8:00 PM – A Nourishing Dinner for the Kidneys
As a busy office worker, you may not have enough time to prepare a healthy and nutritious breakfast and lunch. So, for dinner, you can eat foods that nourish the bone marrow. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that walnuts, dogwood fruit, rehmannia root, black sesame seeds, and beef bones have the function of nourishing the kidney marrow. You can add these ingredients to your dinner to strengthen your bones and delay the decline of the kidneys and spine.
10:00 PM – Enjoy a Traditional Hot Compress
Heat a small amount of fennel and 250 grams of salt together. Place them in a cloth bag and apply it as a hot compress to the neck and back for 30 minutes. Do this once daily. This can improve blood circulation in the neck and back and relieve muscle spasms. Note: Do not make the temperature too high or leave it on for too long.
11:00 PM – Choose a Healthy Pillow
Pillows and beds are also close companions to your cervical spine. A pillow that is too high or too low, or a mattress that is too soft, can also burden your cervical spine. The width of the pillow should reach your shoulders. A "treasure bag" shaped health pillow, which is low in the middle and high at both ends, provides excellent support for the cervical spine and allows it to rest well. For people with cervical spine problems, a wooden board bed or a coir bed is the best choice, while an overly soft bed is not conducive to cervical spine care.