Patient: Description of condition (onset time, main symptoms, hospital visited, etc.): Patient male, 22 years old, onset in November last year, and was examined for herniated disc; symptoms:left leg straight lifting pain, lumbar pain (usually not very painful, but feel uncomfortable all day long), walking inconvenience, causing work problems. I had conservative treatment, but the effect was not satisfactory; then I had acupuncture, but my family gave up because they had not heard of any cases that had been cured with this; finally, I gave up because the cost of surgery was too high, and I heard from the doctor that there was also a risk of recurrence and so on. I want to hear your advice, such as herbal medicine that is effective for lumbar protrusion, thank you. Dr. Wu Zhongzhao, chief physician of the acupuncture department of the Acupuncture Hospital of the Chinese Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine: This information and questions about the contents of the treatment have a certain commonality, that is, there are more people who have such problems that cannot be solved or have confusion. On the one hand, because the lumbar intervertebral disc protrusion is very painful, uncomfortable, affecting the functional activities, so that it is difficult to live and work normally, very much want to get help and treatment; on the other hand, but also worried about the various methods have not yet exact cure efficacy or heard that it is difficult to the protruding disc back into the hesitation, delayed to choose one or more treatment methods, and in the unwarranted so-called ” Research”, inquiring and hesitating delayed the best treatment time, and even make the disease more and more serious. This kind of worry and misunderstanding has its commonality. The parents in the case are a typical member of this group. Therefore, the following questions and doubts are raised. 1. When is the best time to treat a herniated disc such as a lumbar disc? In principle, it is better to treat herniated discs such as lumbar discs as soon as they develop. This kind of disease, mainly local edema and herniated part of the compression of nerves and other tissues, symptoms are generally more urgent, more serious, therefore, requires timely treatment. It is better to use a combination of Western medicine and Chinese medicine. Generally speaking, for the neurological injury disease, the earlier the treatment effect, the better, more than half a year is not healed, there will certainly be sequelae; more than a year, it will be difficult to treat and recover. 2, lumbar disc and other disc herniation, what method of treatment is good? What method to use is mainly based on the severity, location, number of symptoms, length of disease, etc. of the lumbar disc and other disc herniation. In the acute stage, Western medicine is the main method, and the specific Western medicine methods include surgery, local decompression, ablation, pain relief, traction, etc., each with its own indications; in the chronic stage, Chinese medicine is the main method. Chinese medicine methods include herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage, ion introduction, acupoint injection, etc. Generally, acupuncture is preferred, together with Chinese medicine and massage. 3, herniated discs such as lumbar intervertebral discs, since conservative treatment cannot bring back the discs, does it mean that the treatment is ineffective or cannot be treated by a certain method? Some people think that a variety of conservative methods can only relieve the symptoms, not the root cause, so the efficacy of the treatment remains doubtful, always long-term research or look forward to the emergence of any new treatment, special method, the root cause method, or even because the ideal treatment method was not found at the time, so sit and wait for the day when the best method appears and then give up treatment, that is, temporarily give up treatment. In fact, this is wrong. Although it is difficult to make the lumbar discs and other herniated discs partially retracted by a variety of methods, it is very beneficial to relieve or eliminate clinical symptoms. Changes in imaging methods and clinical symptoms are not completely consistent or even separate. Even if a disc herniation such as a lumbar disc cannot be altered or retracted on imaging, it is effective in terms of clinical symptom alteration or elimination. So that’s efficacy, and it’s the truest kind of efficacy. Therefore, there is no need to wait for new treatments or special methods to appear, and it is difficult for these “methods” to appear in the short term. The negative conservative method of keeping the plant and so on is not enough, and even wrong, that can only be the disease more and more serious, more and more difficult to treat. 4, the lumbar intervertebral disc such as disc herniation, when to use surgical treatment? Can surgical treatment cure it? Generally speaking, a herniated disc such as a lumbar disc can be operated as long as the following main indications are met: 1) conservative treatment is ineffective; 2) the disease is developing; 3) loss of behavior; 4) urinary and fecal incontinence; 5) inability to take care of oneself; 6) imaging indicators support the above. In the above major cases, surgery can be considered. However, only about 1/3 of the patients can be operated to eliminate the symptoms, and the rest cannot be completely eliminated, and there is even recurrence. Therefore, surgery is not generally considered first, and it is not a 100% cure. 5, herniated discs such as lumbar discs, is it better to have a single treatment or a combination treatment? Generally, it is better to ask for a combination therapy rather than a single therapy. Such as acupuncture combined with Chinese medicine, or combined with massage is its example.