- carrying loads on your head (for example, carrying a heavy surfboard down the beach to the waves)
- professional dancing
- professional gymnastics
- The condition may run in families.
- A congenitally narrow spinal canal increases the risk of developing cervical spondylosis with myelopathy. With a narrow spinal canal, the spinal cord -- a very sensitive structure that relays feelings to the brain and movement commands from the brain to the muscles -- has less space to fit inside the column of bone it occupies. Spinal canals also narrow as a result of the age-related changes of thickening of spinal ligaments and bone. This type of narrowing has the same effect as congenital narrowing.
- Several varieties of excessive segmental motion such as atlantotaxial instability, often present in persons with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and rheumatoid arthritis, are known risk factors.
- Smoking contributes to degenerative disk disease, and is therefore a risk factor.
- History of trauma (hits and blows) to the forehead predispose one to cervical spondylosis.
Date Created: May 16, 2006
