Low back pain is a very common clinical symptom, especially in the elderly. At one time or another in a person’s life, he or she will experience low back pain. With the advances in screening technology, many people with low back pain will go to the hospital to take a CT or MRI of the lumbar spine. After we get the report, sometimes we will see the diagnosis of lumbar disc herniation, but sometimes the doctor’s diagnosis is lumbar spinal stenosis, so what kind of difference is there between these two different diagnoses? What is the connection between these two different diagnoses? What is the difference in treatment? Lumbar disc herniation and lumbar spinal stenosis are actually two sides of the same coin. First, let’s look at what we mean by lumbar spinal canal. We know that the lumbar spine has five segments, and in the center is the bony canal that holds the crest of the spinal cord, which is called the lumbar spinal canal. The volume of the lumbar spinal canal is relatively fixed, and the lumbar spinal canal of a normal person is smooth up and down, and the pressure inside is not high, so a normal person will not cause low back pain due to problems in the lumbar spinal canal. Secondly, let’s look at the lumbar discs. The lumbar disc is a cushion between the upper and lower lumbar vertebrae, surrounded by a layer of fibrous rings. Various causes of lumbar disc herniation, protruding to the outside of the annulus fibrosus, protruding into the lumbar spinal canal, which will lead to the lumbar spinal canal diameter will become narrower, then the pressure inside will increase. Let’s say my lumbar spinal canal this place space is so big, originally there is no disc inside this thing, now after the disc herniation, hard to squeeze into this space, this time the lumbar spinal canal space will appear small, this is called lumbar spinal stenosis. After the lumbar spinal stenosis, the pressure within the lumbar spinal canal will become greater, compression to the lumbar spinal nerve, will cause low back pain. So lumbar disc herniation is actually one of the causes of lumbar spinal stenosis, but not the only cause, only that this cause is more common in the clinic. Lumbar disc herniation is a pathologic diagnosis, and lumbar spinal stenosis is a morphologic diagnosis. The corresponding symptoms, such as low back pain, sciatica, etc., are symptomatic diagnoses, which are several aspects of the same problem. After lumbar spinal stenosis occurs, because of the increased pressure in the lumbar spinal canal, the patient will have a series of clinical symptoms. For example, when coughing or sneezing, the pressure in the abdominal cavity increases, which correspondingly leads to a sudden increase in the pressure in the spinal canal, and then the patient will experience radiating pain along the nerves of the lumbar and leg regions, which is a typical manifestation of lumbar spinal stenosis. How should lumbar spinal stenosis be treated? Let’s start with the general treatment. When the symptoms of lumbar pain are more obvious, such as affecting the walking, used to be able to walk a kilometer without any problem, but now can not walk one or two hundred meters, this is called intermittent claudication. This is called intermittent claudication. At this time, the first point we have to do is to lie down and rest, and can no longer do physical activities every day as in the past. Bed rest is mainly hard board bed, good support, can not sleep soft bed, otherwise it will lead to the aggravation of the symptoms of low back pain. After lying down and resting, the pressure in the spinal canal can be relieved naturally, and then the corresponding edema and compression of the nerve root can be partially relieved. So to relieve low back pain, lying down and resting is very important. The second point is to avoid trauma. Because the lumbar spine nerve roots are edematous and fragile in low back pain, if there is a new trauma, it will aggravate its clinical manifestations, and it is very unfavorable to the treatment in the future. Therefore, we should pay attention to the protection of the lumbar spine at this time. Especially for the elderly, their mobility is relatively poor, easy to fall and so on these circumstances, need to pay special attention. We suggest wearing a rigid waist cuff, that is, the general health care store are sold, wider, the back has a hard steel plate to support the wide belt, the lumbar spine bound, which can play a supportive role, to avoid traumatic injury to the lumbar region. In addition is usually in our daily life to avoid flash contusion, such as a pot of water underground, you have to end up absolutely can not say that stooping to pick up, end up upright that is not possible, must first squat down to hold the weight and then slowly stand up, of course, we should try to avoid moving heavy objects, so as to avoid new flash contusion aggravate lumbar pain symptoms.