40-year-old Lao Li is a taxi driver, every day from morning to night running taxi, due to long hours sitting driving, he felt more and more obvious back pain, six months ago one day when driving a bump, suddenly felt the back pain on the aggravation, but also the emergence of the left leg of the radioactive pain. The pain was so bad that he couldn’t sit or lie down and couldn’t drive, so he had to rest in bed at home. Three days later, Li came to my clinic with a large pile of examination data and told me right away that he wanted to be hospitalized for surgery. The local doctor told him that “the disc had herniated and was pressing on the nerve, so he needed surgery”, and he was terrified. I looked at the MRI film of Lao Li, asked him some basic information and told him: due to occupational factors, he usually sits for too long resulting in lack of exercise and weakening of the lumbar muscles, which accelerates the aging of the lumbar disc and eventually causes the disc to herniate, and the inflammatory factors released by the herniation stimulate the nerve or the herniation itself compresses the nerve, resulting in pain. Old Li also told me that the pain was so unbearable at the beginning of the attack that he could not even walk, but later the pain was relieved after taking medication and resting, but the feeling was still vague and asked if surgery could be done to cure it. I told Lao Li that most patients with lumbar disc herniation can significantly improve their symptoms or even be cured through reasonable conservative treatment. Statistics show that about 90% of patients are effective with conservative treatment and do not necessarily need surgery. There are many methods of conservative treatment, acupuncture and massage, medication, physical therapy and traction are the most common. I prescribed some non-steroidal anti-inflammatory and analgesic drugs (etoricoxib tablets and celecoxib capsules), muscle relaxants (etoposide hydrochloride tablets) and neurotrophic drugs (methocobalamin extended-release tablets) to Lao Li, and advised him to rest in bed as much as possible during the acute period of pain, and to wear a lumbar brace for protection if he needs to go down to the ground, and to exercise the muscles of the low back after the pain is relieved. “double flying swallow exercise method”, the specific action is: prone on the bed, hands, feet and head slowly force backward stretch, abdomen on the bed, so that the body to make like a swallow flying posture. Hearing that there was no need for surgery, Old Li and his lover finally went home with peace of mind. Three months later, when Lao Li came for a review, the pain symptoms had completely disappeared and he resumed his normal work. I urged Lao Li to arrange his work reasonably and insist on exercise to avoid recurrence. The intervertebral disc is the shock absorber of our body, which can relieve the force and impact on the spine when the body is walking or running. From our childhood, the intervertebral discs are a mass of flexible shell, the middle of the water-rich elastic tissue. As we age, the center of the disc begins to lose water in our 20s, the middle part becomes less elastic, and the shell begins to become brittle and prone to rupture in some cases. Once the outer shell of the disc ruptures and the center protrudes, a disc herniation occurs. Daily incorrect and inappropriate spinal posture maintained for too long accelerates the degeneration of normal lumbar discs and is also the cause of lumbar disc herniation. Effective prevention and control cannot be separated from training of lifestyle and work habits as well as reasonable lumbar spine exercises, especially for people with the disease, active and targeted sports and exercises are the best treatment. However, if the patient has developed abnormal urinary and fecal functions, or even significant muscle atrophy in the lower extremities, or if the patient is ineffective or even getting worse after 3 months of conservative treatment, he or she should be treated through surgery as soon as possible. Of course, no matter which treatment is chosen, it is recommended to go to a regular hospital early to see a professional doctor for a detailed examination before making a decision.