“Doctor, I want to ask if I can have a lumbar discectomy. I want to have all my lumbar discs cut so they won’t protrude in the future.” This was a question asked by a patient when I was out of clinic. To be honest, because I have been in the spine clinic for a long time, I have encountered a lot of strange questions, but such “strange” questions are really rare, which also highlights the patient’s anxiety about “lumbar protrusion” and lack of knowledge about lumbar discs. After some serious thought I told the patient: In fact, the lumbar discs are our good friends, our every move has their contribution, we have to live in peace with the lumbar discs, not to mention the random removal! In fact, as long as we take the right measures to treat and protect our good friend, the lumbar disc, he will not only not easily protrude, but will continue to serve us. The “herniated lumbar disc” is always on everyone’s lips, so what exactly is a “lumbar disc”? The “lumbar disc” is the scientific name of the lumbar intervertebral disc, the shape is like a sandwich, sandwiched between the upper and lower cartilage plate central part is rich in elastic jelly-like nucleus pulposus tissue, surrounded by a tough and dense fiber ring, he has a certain degree of hardness and elasticity. One by one, the vertebrae are supported by many of these “disc” structures connected to form a spinal column as a whole, and the discs act like springs to absorb and cushion external forces, while also ensuring that the spine has a certain degree of mobility. Without the credit of the lumbar intervertebral discs, the spine would have no mobility, and we would not be able to do the bending and waist action! The intervertebral disc is both strong and fragile, so we must protect him at all times and not easily hurt him. If we do not treat and protect our lumbar disc, he will slowly degenerate, tear, protrude, not only can not play his original role, but also cause lumbar disc herniation – the appearance of this disease is the result of minor injury to the lumbar intervertebral disc, accumulation of strain, sudden outbreak. It’s easy to understand how to prevent lumbar disc herniation after unraveling the mystery of the lumbar disc. Lumbar disc herniation is a common disorder in orthopedics and spine surgery, and is a common cause of back and leg pain that can develop in all age groups. Although there are many methods of diagnosis and treatment, mature treatment programs, and precise treatment effects, but once the onset of the disease will still have different degrees of impact on working life. As the old saying goes, it is one of the quintessential theories of traditional medicine in China not to treat the disease, but to treat the disease before it occurs. For lumbar disc herniation, we should not only treat the disease, but also treat the disease, prevent the disease before it happens, take correct and reasonable preventive measures, treat the intervertebral discs well, protect the discs and reduce injuries, so that the lumbar intervertebral discs are not easily herniated and the onset of lumbar disc herniation can be effectively reduced. I found a high incidence of friends with the following conditions during my visits. 20-50 years old, partly thin, light weight or stout, overweight, mostly underdeveloped muscles in the lower back, muscle weakness. Both men and women can develop the disease, slightly more men than women, but there is a trend of gradually increasing female incidence. Long-term heavy laborers or non-heavy laborers but long-term sedentary, lack of exercise, such as professional drivers, finance, writing, design and IT workers are the majority of patients, the onset of these patients even more than heavy laborers. There is a sudden increase in weight, such as pregnant women, or due to disease, trauma and other factors that lead to a sudden reduction in exercise, sudden weight gain. So why are these friends prone to lumbar disc herniation? It is easy to understand by combining the functional and structural characteristics of the lumbar disc. We know that the lumbar intervertebral discs need to bear a certain pressure when playing physiological functions, once the overload situation he will be “overwhelmed” and hurt, if the long-term excessive overload work will be “very injured”, sandwiched in the “sandwich” central medulla. “The nucleus pulposus in the center of the sandwich will easily break through the degenerated fibrous ring and leap to the outside of the sandwich to compress the nerve after the extreme pressure. This situation is like a weightlifter who can lift 100 kg barbell at a time, but must be forced to lift 200 kg at a time will certainly be injured, not only can not improve the level of weightlifting may also be due to injury end of sports career. Long-term heavy physical activity and overweight friends equivalent to daily let the intervertebral disc to bear the unbearable weight, over time the intervertebral disc will be injured and disabled. So why is it easy to work without heavy physical work often ambulatory work disc herniation? This is because office work is generally a continuous sitting position, this position when the lumbar disc pressure is about four times the weight, while the lack of exercise is often poor muscle strength, especially thin women muscle strength is relatively weak, the pressure should be borne by the muscles fall on the body of the intervertebral disc, which is like adding insult to injury. Trauma, pregnancy, and sudden weight gain are the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing the complete disc structure to collapse. The presence of the above-mentioned situations should pay extra attention to targeted prevention. It is recommended that we reasonably moderate “waist”, to ensure that the daily work life at the same time, but also to avoid overload, do not overdraw the function of the lumbar spine, usually pay attention to more for the lumbar disc decompression, can not always let him long-term overload work. It is recommended that appropriate exercise, but also appropriate weight control, to develop good habits of work and rest, here are some specific recommendations below for your reference. It is recommended to lie in bed more often, because the intervertebral disc in bed is the most relaxed state, when the pressure on the “sandwich” is minimal, and the pressure in the upright state can be ignored. Rest should try to sleep in a soft and hard bed, avoid sleeping on the sofa or too soft mattress. Choose a mattress both to have the appropriate softness to fit a certain spinal physiological curvature of the torso, but also to provide stable and good support for the body, so that we can rest in a stable and comfortable state, to avoid chronic damage to the musculoskeletal system due to the continued unstable abnormal stress. The brown mattress bed takes into account both comfort and good support for the lumbar region is a more ideal choice. “Doctor, I want to ask if I can have a lumbar discectomy? I want to cut all my lumbar discs so that they won’t protrude in the future.” This was the question asked by a patient when I was out of the clinic. To be honest, because of my long experience in spine surgery, I have encountered a lot of strange questions, but such an “odd” question is really rare, which also highlights the patient’s anxiety about “lumbar protrusion” and lack of knowledge about lumbar discs. After some serious thought I told the patient: In fact, the lumbar discs are our good friends, our every move has their contribution, we have to live in peace with the lumbar discs, not to mention the random removal! In fact, as long as we take the right measures to treat and protect our good friend, the lumbar disc, he will not only not easily protrude, but will continue to serve us. The “herniated lumbar disc” is always on everyone’s lips, so what exactly is a “lumbar disc”? The “lumbar disc” is the scientific name of the lumbar intervertebral disc, the shape is like a sandwich, sandwiched between the upper and lower cartilage plate central part is rich in elastic jelly-like nucleus pulposus tissue, surrounded by a tough and dense fiber ring, he has a certain degree of hardness and elasticity. One by one, the vertebrae are supported by many of these “disc” structures connected to form a spinal column as a whole, and the discs act like springs to absorb and cushion external forces, while also ensuring that the spine has a certain degree of mobility. Without the credit of the lumbar intervertebral discs, the spine would have no mobility, and we would not be able to do the bending and waist action! The intervertebral disc is both strong and fragile, so we must protect him at all times and not easily hurt him. If we do not treat and protect our lumbar disc, he will slowly degenerate, tear, protrude, not only can not play his original role, but also cause lumbar disc herniation – the appearance of this disease is the result of minor injury to the lumbar intervertebral disc, accumulation of strain, sudden outbreak. It’s easy to understand how to prevent lumbar disc herniation after unraveling the mystery of the lumbar disc. Lumbar disc herniation is a common disorder in orthopedics and spine surgery, and is a common cause of back and leg pain that can develop in all age groups. Although there are many methods of diagnosis and treatment, mature treatment programs, and precise treatment effects, but once the onset of the disease will still have different degrees of impact on working life. As the old saying goes, it is one of the quintessential theories of traditional medicine in China not to treat the disease, but to treat the disease before it occurs. For lumbar disc herniation, we should not only treat the disease, but also treat the disease, prevent the disease before it happens, take correct and reasonable preventive measures, treat the intervertebral discs well, protect the discs and reduce injuries, so that the lumbar intervertebral discs are not easily herniated and the onset of lumbar disc herniation can be effectively reduced. I found a high incidence of friends with the following conditions during my visits. 20-50 years old, partly thin, light weight or stout, overweight, mostly underdeveloped muscles in the lower back, muscle weakness. Both men and women can develop the disease, slightly more men than women, but there is a trend of gradually increasing female incidence. Long-term heavy laborers or non-heavy laborers but long-term sedentary, lack of exercise, such as professional drivers, finance, writing, design and IT workers are the majority of patients, the onset of these patients even more than heavy laborers. There is a sudden increase in weight, such as pregnant women, or due to disease, trauma and other factors that lead to a sudden reduction in exercise, sudden weight gain. So why are these friends prone to lumbar disc herniation? It is easy to understand by combining the functional and structural characteristics of the lumbar disc. We know that the lumbar intervertebral discs need to bear a certain pressure when playing physiological functions, once the overload situation he will be “overwhelmed” and hurt, if the long-term excessive overload work will be “very injured”, sandwiched in the “sandwich” central medulla. “The nucleus pulposus in the center of the sandwich will easily break through the degenerated fibrous ring and leap to the outside of the sandwich to compress the nerve after the extreme pressure. This situation is like a weightlifter who can lift 100 kg barbell at a time, but must be forced to lift 200 kg at a time will certainly be injured, not only can not improve the level of weightlifting may also be due to injury end of sports career. Long-term heavy physical activity and overweight friends equivalent to daily let the intervertebral disc to bear the unbearable weight, over time the intervertebral disc will be injured and disabled. So why is it easy to work without heavy physical work often ambulatory work disc herniation? This is because office work is generally a continuous sitting position, this position when the lumbar disc pressure is about four times the weight, while the lack of exercise is often poor muscle strength, especially thin women muscle strength is relatively weak, the pressure should be borne by the muscles fall on the body of the intervertebral disc, which is like adding insult to injury. Trauma, pregnancy, and sudden weight gain are the last straw that breaks the camel’s back, causing the complete disc structure to collapse. The presence of the above-mentioned situations should pay extra attention to targeted prevention. It is recommended that we reasonably moderate “waist”, to ensure that the daily work life at the same time, but also to avoid overload, do not overdraw the function of the lumbar spine, usually pay attention to more for the lumbar disc decompression, can not always let him long-term overload work. It is recommended that appropriate exercise, but also appropriate weight control, to develop good habits of work and rest, here are some specific recommendations below for your reference. It is recommended to lie in bed more often, because the intervertebral disc in bed is the most relaxed state, when the pressure on the “sandwich” is minimal, and the pressure in the upright state can be ignored. Rest should try to sleep in a soft and hard bed, avoid sleeping on the sofa or too soft mattress. Choose a mattress both to have the appropriate softness to fit a certain spinal physiological curvature of the torso, but also to provide stable and good support for the body, so that we can rest in a stable and comfortable state, to avoid chronic damage to the musculoskeletal system due to the continued unstable abnormal stress. Palm beds take into account both comfort and good support for the lumbar region is a more ideal choice. Long hours of ambulatory work must choose a well-supported seat, maintain the correct sitting posture, try to chest up, waist upright not side tilt not excessive forward tilt so that the center of gravity of the trunk falls between the sit bones. This will prevent the peripheral fiber ring of the “sandwich” from tearing due to uneven stress and prevent the nucleus pulposus from protruding outward from the weak part. Whether standing or sitting, the same position should not be sustained for too long. The pressure on the intervertebral disc in the standing and sitting forward position is several times the weight, and the “sandwich” structure is easily damaged and degenerated after continuous heavy pressure. At the same time, the muscles of the back for a long time without flexion and extension activities, easy to cause muscle stiffness, tension and elasticity decline, affecting the stability of the spine, indirectly increasing the pressure on the intervertebral disc. It is recommended that every hour of work should be a proper rest of 5-10 minutes, change the position, stretch the limbs, do a chest expansion exercise, so that the intervertebral discs also relax, which can relieve fatigue, but also for the intervertebral discs decompression. If the low back muscles are not developed, weak strength can increase outdoor aerobic exercise such as jogging, walking, etc., which also helps control weight, but should not be strenuous exercise. Daily to try to avoid bending forward to move heavy objects, this action when the waist to bear the transient stress is particularly large, very easy to damage the fiber ring and strain the muscle. “Little swallow fly” and “five-point support” and other lumbar back muscle function exercise method, can effectively improve the strength and flexibility of the back muscles. The muscles are strong, the stability of the spine is increased, equivalent to the intervertebral disc decompression. “Sitting properly less ambulatory, brown mattress bed good sleep, control weight more exercise, strong lumbar muscles to protect the intervertebral disc.” Please friends remember this jingle, take care of our good friend – lumbar intervertebral disc, away from the lumbar disc herniation! If the lumbar back muscles are not developed, weak strength can be properly increased outdoor aerobic exercise such as jogging, walking, etc. This also helps control weight, but should not be strenuous exercise. Everyday, you should try to avoid bending forward to carry heavy objects, this action when the waist is subjected to particularly large transient stress, very easy to damage the fiber ring and strain the muscle. “Little swallow fly” and “five-point support” and other lumbar back muscle function exercise method, can effectively improve the strength and flexibility of the back muscles. The muscles are strong, the stability of the spine is increased, equivalent to the intervertebral disc decompression. “Sitting properly less ambulatory, brown mattress bed good sleep, control weight more exercise, strong lumbar muscles to protect the intervertebral disc.” Please remember this jingle, take care of our good friend – lumbar intervertebral disc, away from the trouble of lumbar intervertebral disc herniation.