I am afraid that how long non-surgical treatment takes is a common concern for both doctors and patients. Regarding the duration of non-operative treatment for lumbar disc herniation, the requirement in China was 1 month in the 1980s, 3 months in the future, and more than 6 months in recent years. Even for patients whose symptoms and signs such as postoperative lumbar pain and intermittent claudication are not removed or recur, in principle, they should undergo 6 months of regular non-operative treatment before performing surgery again. Foreign views are so similar, such as the North American Spine Society, which recommends a minimum of 6 weeks of nonoperative treatment in its guidelines on the treatment of low back pain. Historically, the relatively longer duration is a sign of the increased awareness of nonsurgical treatment and the importance it has received. However, the length of duration of non-operative treatment is a relative concept. It depends on the patient’s condition and course, the clinical experience and skill level of the treating physician, the patient’s cooperation, and even the cost of care. For this reason, previous studies on the duration of non-surgical treatment have yielded different results. Moreover, the length of treatment depends on the goals and objectives of the treatment. For this reason, it is important to clarify the critical questions of “what the patient needs to solve” and “what the non-surgical treatment can solve for the patient”. Previous observational studies have shown that patients with effective clinical treatment first improve their pain symptoms, while recovery of common neurological deficits, such as sensory deficits and loss of tendon reflexes, takes a long time or rarely recovers, but does not affect the patient’s function. Therefore, pain is the main conflict or the main aspect of the conflict in patients with lumbar disc herniation and the main reason for patients to seek medical treatment. It is evident that pain is a problem that must and can be solved by clinical treatment, and in most cases the disappearance of pain not only means the relief of symptoms, but also signals the elimination of pain-causing factors. Therefore, “treatment from pain” should be a feasible way for the clinical treatment of this disease. Furthermore, lumbar disc herniation is a self-healing or self-limiting disease, and its own occurrence, development, regression and prognosis have a certain regularity, about 90% of acute patients can heal themselves within 2 months. However, the reduction or relief of major symptoms such as pain does not mean the elimination of the effects of the protrusion and recovery of function, although the reduction of inflammation takes about 1 to 2 weeks, the healing of the ruptured fibrous ring takes about 1 month, the functional recovery of spinal instability and injured nerve roots should take more than 3 to 6 months, and the atrophy and absorption of the protruding nucleus pulposus takes about 2 to 12 months or even longer. Thus, it can be seen that distinguishing the different concepts of clinical cure and pathological cure and clarifying the main goal of clinical treatment are important bases for deciding the treatment plan and duration. From the perspective of clinical treatment, within the scope of indications, 4 to 6 weeks of non-surgical treatment is necessary, while 6 weeks to 6 months should be the task and content of the patient’s functional exercise and disease rehabilitation. In addition, to some extent and within a certain range, prolonged non-operative treatment can improve and consolidate the efficacy, but some special types of patients may have poor efficacy if non-operative treatment exceeds 3 months before surgery. Therefore, non-operative treatment is not only opposed to superficiality, but also does not advocate greed and brutality. In fact, for professionals engaged in the clinical work of the disease, they should have a full estimation of the general history, regression and prognosis of the disease, and should have a good idea of how long and to what extent they can relieve the patient’s pain. Finally, since prolonged passive treatment can aggravate the patient’s perception of the severity of the disease and its state, the elimination of pain symptoms and restoration of function in the shortest possible time should be the common goal of non-surgical treatment (to be continued).