Along with the increasing number of factors such as working at a desk, driving for long periods of time, and the widespread popularity of competitive sports (basketball, tennis, badminton, etc.), there is a name for a disease in life – “lumbar disc herniation”, which is becoming more and more familiar to everyone, heard from friends and relatives, or unfortunately hit by the disease themselves. What is the disease of lumbar disc herniation? Is it serious? How should it be treated? This is the patient’s friends in the Internet to me the most questions, today I take the opportunity of this article, and we have a good chat about this both familiar and unfamiliar disease – lumbar disc herniation. First of all, I should tell you, lumbar disc herniation is not terrible, it is one of the many lumbar degenerative diseases, but also the most common one. For it, we doctors can say that we have studied it very early, and we have studied it the most, and naturally, we have the most treatment methods, from the traditional conservative treatment: medication, injection, acupuncture, physical therapy, traction, infrared, etc., to the surgical treatment, and then to the advanced minimally invasive surgery, interventional therapy, etc. So for the lumbar disc herniation, we should tell you that it is not scary. Therefore, for lumbar disc herniation, we should have confidence, we have many kinds of human beings have many kinds of effective and certain treatment methods to deal with it, it is not so terrible as some other diseases that make our doctors rack their brains and do nothing. How do you treat a herniated disc? This is our vast number of patients and friends concerned about the topic, some people recommend acupuncture, some people recommend paste ointment, some people recommend physical therapy, traction, massage, some people recommend minimally invasive, ozone ablation, etc. …… many methods, in the end, where to go from here? Prof. Zhang Shuncong of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine has made some suggestions based on his nearly 20 years of clinical experience. ①Conservative treatment is effective, but whether to choose conservative, how to choose conservative methods need professional guidance from doctors Professor Zhang Shuncong said: In fact, most of the patients with intervertebral disc herniation can be treated conservatively within a certain period of time to obtain symptomatic improvement. Statistics show that about 95% of patients with lumbar disc herniation can achieve satisfactory results through conservative treatment, and do not necessarily need surgery. However, it should be pointed out that conservative treatment is not a panacea, and for patients whose condition is not suitable, blindly choosing conservative treatment will only delay the condition and bring no benefit. This requires a professional orthopedic surgeon to make a careful judgment and choice based on the patient’s symptoms, radiographs, and so on. Meanwhile, there are many methods of conservative treatment, such as acupuncture and massage, traditional Chinese medicine, physical therapy and traction, etc. These are all common methods. How to choose? Although it is said that “a black cat or a white cat that catches a mouse is a good cat”, but after all, we have to treat the symptoms. For example, most herniated discs that are not ruptured can be relieved by medication and physical therapy. Ruptured disc herniation is not necessarily suitable for traction, massage and other methods. The use of Chinese medicines and proprietary Chinese medicines will depend on the physical condition of each patient and the current state of the patient. Therefore, Dr. Zhang Shuncong especially emphasized: before choosing conservative treatment, it is very necessary to go to a regular hospital to receive a detailed examination of orthopedic doctors. ② Surgery is not scary, serious people should not avoid treatment It is also common to meet very serious, even affecting the function of urination and defecation, the lower limbs appear obvious muscle atrophy patients, because of the fear and fear of surgery, and insist on choosing conservative treatment, so that the situation is getting worse and worse. Prof. Zhang Shuncong of the First Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou University of Traditional Chinese Medicine said: from a technical point of view, the current surgical treatment of lumbar disc herniation has been quite mature, and the risk, although there is, is not as great as imagined. The development of minimally invasive technology is also rapidly changing. As mentioned earlier lumbar disc herniation is an abnormally protruding disc jamming the nerves, and if the location of the protruding disc is so specific that it cannot be relieved by conservative methods that serious nerve damage occurs, such as dysfunction of bowel and bladder functions and severe atrophy of leg muscles. Then the compression should be relieved by surgical intervention as soon as possible. Because nerve damage is reversible to a certain extent, once the damage is beyond the realm of recovery, even if the compression of the disc on the nerves is lifted through surgery, it may be difficult to restore the function of the already damaged nerves. Just like a stone pressing on the skin, if the pressure is not too long, even if the skin is bruised, the stone can be removed in time to relieve the pressure and the skin can recover well. But if the stone has been to the skin to necrosis, then even if the stone away, necrosis of the skin can still be recovered is hard to say. ③Scientific exercise is the best treatment There are many underlying causes of lumbar disc herniation, including heredity, abnormal spinal postures in daily life, and so on. But it should be said that daily incorrect and improper spinal posture maintained for too long accelerates the degeneration of normal lumbar discs, which is the root cause of lumbar disc herniation. The most effective prevention and treatment methods are inseparable from the patient’s own attention to lifestyle, work habits and reasonable lumbar spine exercise. Stand for a long time, sit for a long time need to get up and walk, activities; often go swimming, pull the bar. Prof. Zhang Shuncong introduced: this method can take into account the lumbar and cervical spine, in our exercise guidance to patients, observed very good results, it is worth trying. In conclusion, although lumbar disc herniation is common, but not terrible, most of them can be improved through reasonable and systematic conservative treatment. A small number of serious patients, should not negatively delay the condition, actively in the regular hospitals to choose the most mature technology, the most and the most appropriate minimally invasive or conventional surgical methods, is able to effectively shorten the painful process of the disease and achieve satisfactory results. Finally, Prof. Zhang Shuncong especially reminds our young and middle-aged friends: to proactively prevent lumbar disc herniation, active, targeted sports and exercise is the best treatment.