Why chiropractors often say: the decision to operate or not depends on you! After reading this article you will surely have some idea; do lumbar spine diseases always have symptoms? Does a spinal condition exist without symptoms? Do doctors operate on asymptomatic “lesions” based on imaging data? In a 1990 study of MRI of spinal lesions published by Boden in the JBJS journal; Professor Boden had 67 volunteers without low back pain, sciatica, or neurologic claudication undergo MRI of the lumbar spine, with an average age of 42 years (range 20 to 80 years), and the results were then evaluated by three neurologic radiologists who were unaware of the volunteers’ symptoms and conditions. The imaging results were then evaluated by three neurological radiologists who were unaware of the volunteers’ symptoms and conditions. Ultimately, they found that 28% of the population had imaging disc pathology or spinal stenosis. Of the 53 volunteers younger than 60 years of age, 20% of the population (10 cases) had a herniated disc nucleus pulposus and one patient had spinal stenosis. Of the 14 volunteers older than 60 years, 57% (7) had imaging abnormalities; 36% had herniated discs and 21% had spinal stenosis. 35% of those aged 20 to 39 years had at least one segment of lumbar disc degeneration or bulge, and only one person aged 60 to 80 years had none of these lesions. Professor Boden’s findings suggest that healthy people who do not have symptoms of disc herniation such as low back pain, sciatica, or neurological claudication can also be affected by imaging lumbar spine pathology, and that the chances of disc and spinal canal degeneration on MRI increase with age. Therefore, Professor Boden believes that imaging disc pathology needs to be evaluated carefully, combining age with clinical symptoms, and that surgery should not be performed lightly based on MRI findings. Back to the original question, you have learned what spine surgeons always say: imaging shows that you do have a problem in your spine, and whether or not you need surgery requires your judgment from your heart and your physical symptoms, whether or not this pain is still tolerable, and whether or not it is already affecting your daily life, you have to make up your own mind. Of course, this study also came to another conclusion; not without symptoms there is no spinal disease, it is also important to do a good job of daily health care protection and exercise hard to make the muscles of the lower back and abdomen around the spine strong and healthy.