The short answer is yes. Research has shown that fatigue can be a symptom of upper cervical spine issues, such as misalignment or degeneration.
If the spine is out of alignment, the rest of the body needs to work that much harder to maintain proper posture. If nerves are pinched and muscles are tight, it is going to lead to a tremendous power drain. This is going to make the person feel fatigued or overly tired.
Spinal stenosis is a manageable condition, but you may experience chronic fatigue because of its overall effects. Most times, adjustments to your lifestyle can be enough to treat fatigue. However, a certain amount of tiredness is to be expected, especially if you're an older patient.
While symptoms vary, they generally include pain along the cervical spine, neck, lumbar spine, or lower back. The pain often radiates throughout the arms, buttocks, and extremities. Fatigue can increase with prolonged periods of sitting, standing or walking.
Fatigue is a common complaint in spondyloarthritis, and one that doesn't often receive the attention it deserves. Different from feeling “tired,” fatigue doesn't just go away after a good night's sleep, and can affect many aspects of life.
"Fatigue from inflammation in ankylosing spondylitis can feel like you have the flu. You can ache all over," says Rochelle Rosian, MD, the director of regional rheumatology at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “That's because inflammation affects your whole body, not just your joints.”
One of the main symptoms of a cervical spine disorder is neck pain. You may also have pain in the head, jaw, shoulders, arms, or legs, as well as numbness and weakness. Other problems include impaired coordination or balance, difficulty breathing, or loss of bowel and bladder control.
The cervical nerve roots innervate the back of the head and neck as well as the arms and hands. If they are affected, the patient could have burning, tingling, numbness, and pain in these areas. Sometimes headaches result from cervical degenerative disc problems.
Symptoms. Cervical disc degenerative disorder can be characterized by neck pain. This neck pain can be most prevalent when the patient is upright or moving the head and can be reduced by lying down or reclining. Often the disc will be associated with osteophytes or bone spurs.
Also called cervical spinal stenosis, or simply spinal stenosis, the condition is most common in adults ages 30-50 and affects about twice as many men as women. And while neck pain is a common primary symptom, cervical stenosis can gradually cause many more symptoms that affect much of your body.
Be sure to exercise at least four hours before going to bed, as exercise can also act as a stimulant and create restless sleep. Incorporate deep breathing exercises, massage therapy, meditation, yoga and muscle relaxation techniques into your daily routine as they can help manage symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome.
You may be too exhausted even to manage your daily affairs. In most cases, there's a reason for the fatigue. It might be allergic rhinitis, anemia, depression, fibromyalgia, chronic kidney disease, liver disease, lung disease (COPD), a bacterial or viral infection, or some other health condition.
Cervical Disc Disease
According to the study noted above, cervical disc degeneration was more prevalent at the C5-C6 level. For those suffering from cervical disc degeneration disease, they may experience neck pain, nerve pain that radiates down to the shoulders, arm, hand or fingers.
From the lateral cord, C5, C6, and C7 supply the pectoralis major and minor muscles, via the lateral and medial pectoral nerves, as well as the coracobrachialis, brachialis and biceps brachii, via the musculocutaneous nerve. The musculocutaneous nerve provides sensation to the skin of the lateral forearm.
Fever, night sweats, unexplained weight loss. Excruciating pain, cervical lymphadenopathy, intractable night pain, pain that is increasing, exquisite tenderness over vertebral body, generalised neck stiffness. Nausea or vomiting. New or severe headache.
Cervical spondylosis may lead to white matter damage, gray matter volume loss, and functional adaptive changes in the sensorimotor cortex.
When a C6-C7 herniated disc occurs and the C6-C7 nerve root is irritated, the symptoms usually include neck pain and pain in the arms, weakness in the hands and weakness in the arms, shoulder pain, chest pains, uncontrollable sweating, headaches, and possibly more. Many times, this condition can be misdiagnosed.
Vertigo, headache, palpitation, nausea, abdominal discomfort, tinnitus, blurred vision, and hypomnesia are common symptoms in patients with cervical spondylosis.
Symptoms of cervical spondylosis
It's common to experience some or all of these symptoms including: neck pain. stiffness. headaches which usually start at the back of the head, just above the neck, and travel over the top to the forehead.
Conclusions: Patients with MS present more frequently spondylosis which is associated with younger age, more severe disability and extensive lesions in the brain.