Before going to bed two days ago, I read the news of Li Yuchun’s self-disclosure of ankylosing spondylitis:
She revealed in an interview that her spine has always been very bad, but she didn’t care much before, until she was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis last year, when serious Lying down makes me feel uncomfortable, I feel like my body is petrifying little by little, and I have to use a wheelchair to go out.
Maybe ordinary netizens see this and just sigh “Wow~ She’s so miserable”, or take it as gossip after a meal, but I have a chill down my spine while watching!
Because I am a potential patient with ankylosing spondylitis myself.
On the surface, the symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis, such as back pain, difficulty falling asleep, etc., will feel that this disease is related to lumbar disc herniation, muscle strain, scoliosis, etc. It is very similar, but ankylosing spondylitis is a disease of the autoimmune system. Like rheumatoid and lupus erythematosus, once diagnosed, it cannot be cured. It is completely different from cervical spondylosis and lumbar disease. .
So to check for this disease, it is necessary to do related tests, such as blood tests for genes, filming, etc. It was also an accident that I found out that I was at risk for the disease. Because of the frequent pain in the coccyx, I went to the hospital for an examination, and accidentally found a gene (HLA-B27) strongly associated with ankylosing spondylitis was positive. But fortunately, it was shown to be good at the time of the filming, which ruled out the onset of this disease.
But the doctor clearly told me that there is still a need to pay attention to this indicator, and the probability of triggering ankylosing spondylitis in the future will be relatively high.
I really don’t know, I don’t know, once I understand it, it’s actually more common than I thought. About 1 in 10 people in ordinary people are HLA-B27 positive, and there are about 5 million in China. “Tonic” patients. The well-known Jay Chou, Zhang Jiayi, Cai Shaofen… are all.
▲ Jay Chou was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis when he was in middle school, and now it recurs from time to time
▲After her mother got sick, she wanted to break up with Zhang Jin, but she was afraid that she would spend the rest of her life in a wheelchair
It is really very painful to have this disease. Ankylosing spondylitis is also called “immortal cancer”, which means that it will not kill you, but it can torture you to the point of death.
It just so happened that Dad OK’s cousin was a doctor in the rheumatology department of a national top three hospital, so I specifically interviewed her.
I can share with you specifically, is ankylosing spondylitis really that terrible? Who is prone to this disease? How to prevent and intervene early?
#01
What are the symptoms of ankylosing spondylitis?
Ankylosing spondylitis is a rheumatic immune disease with the spine as the main lesion site. The etiology is still unclear. It can cause spinal stiffness and sclerosis, resulting in different degrees of joint and bone lesions. It can even cause eye, skin, and intestinal lesions.
In layman’s terms, you can understand that the spine is inflamed.
Because this disease itself is a chronic disease, at the very beginning, it was very easy to be ignored by everyone. The first affected part is the sacroiliac joint (where the end of the spine meets the pelvis), and the patient just feels back pain, especially when you wake up in the morning, the back is a little sore, the feeling of being pulled, or something When sitting for a long time, the waist is a little sore, and our first reaction must be “I’m too tired recently, just take a rest.” to the point of.
Most people are like that, and they don’t take it seriously.
Some people think it is a lumbar disc herniation, and then go to the hospital to see an orthopaedic and pain department, which can easily be misdiagnosed and delayed treatment.
General pain caused by lumbar disc herniation and muscle strain will improve a lot if we lie down and rest, but if ankylosing spondylitis wakes up in the middle of the night, continue to lie down and only It will be more uncomfortable, and you have to get up and move a little, stretch your muscles and bones, and then continue to sleep. This is the obvious difference between the two.
This disease, if left unchecked and delayed, can, in severe cases, cause the vertebrae (bones in the spine) to fuse (grow together), resulting in “Bamboo-like” Spine, the spine is so hardened that it cannot be bent, and it is difficult to lower the head.
#02
How is the disease diagnosed?
If you are under the age of 40 and have low back pain that lasts for more than three months, especially the type of low back pain that is mainly at night and can be improved by activities, you must first When I thought that I might have this disease, I went to the rheumatology and immunization department of a regular tertiary hospital (don’t go to the wrong department) to do ankylosing spondylitis related examinations.
In general, a blood test will be done first, mainly to see if the gene HLA-B27 is positive, which is a correlation with ankylosing spondylitis A very high gene, if there is this gene, will greatly increase the risk of disease. It does not mean that 100% of people with positive genes will develop the disease. Some people may be healthy carriers and carry the gene all their lives, but they will not develop the disease, just like normal people.
In the second step, if there is a high degree of suspicion, we need to take a film. Generally, we do a sacroiliac joint examination, which will be detected by CT/MRI/X-ray films. Look at the changes in this part.
Other tests include erythrocyte sedimentation rate and C-reactive protein, mainly to check the inflammation.
#03
Who is more likely to get this disease?
Generally speaking, the following groups of people are more likely to get sick.
1.Family history and genetics, that is, if someone in your elders has this disease, your risk is also higher than ordinary people.
2. The onset age of ankylosis is not too late, and the age of onset is between 10-40 years old, and the most common age group is 20-30 years old. Unlike many chronically ill elderly people, “rigidity” usually occurs at an average age.
3. This disease is more common in men, but it does not mean that it is particularly “patriarchal”, but because men tend to have symptoms It is more severe, and the symptoms of female patients are relatively mild, so many female patients are not detected or diagnosed.
4. People with the HLA-B27 gene, a protein located on the surface of white blood cells, have a greatly increased risk of developing ankylosing spondylitis.
5. A small number of people who are HLA-B27 negative will develop the disease, mainly caused by people with ulcerative colitis or psoriasis.
#04
Tools for prevention and treatment
If you are like me, you have potential genetic risks. If you want to prevent it, you should pay special attention to it-Don’t stay up late at night.
Ankylosing spondylitis has a characteristic, It basically attacks in the early morning or in the middle of the night, so don’t go to bed after 12 o’clock at night, try to rest as much as possible , then the disease may not be easy to attack at night.
In addition, you should also avoid staying in one position for a long time, such as sitting for a long time, you need to get up and do activities regularly; do a good job of keeping warm in cold weather, and keep autumn clothes and long pants in time when it is cold. Put it on; it is best to sleep on your back and avoid sleeping on a bed that is too soft.
Of course, everyone should be well aware that there is no clear preventive measure for diseases of the immune system.
The most important thing is early detection and early treatment. Don’t be frightened by the information on the Internet. Although you have to “dance with wolves” for life when you have this disease, early intervention + regular review, oral drugs, biological agents and other treatment methods can be well controlled. The condition can be kept stable, and it is unlikely to develop to the point of disability.
Even if it is serious enough to need a wheelchair like Li Yuchun, there is no need to worry too much, thinking that you will spend a lifetime with a wheelchair, and you will have to separate the situation.
Most people, he is actually swollen because of pain, more than knee joint pain, ankle, heel, knee and other parts, the pain is too painful to walk, so he has to use a wheelchair. This condition usually returns to normal after treatment and does not affect walking and movement.
The following situation is more serious, that is, ankylosing spondylitis has a serious complication, that is, necrosis of the femoral head, which affects the activities of the hip joint, then this situation I can’t walk, I’m going to be in a wheelchair. If it reaches this point, it is irreversible. Once femoral head necrosis occurs, it will eventually have to go to an orthopedic joint replacement.