In the past, many doctors would recommend that patients with lumbar disc herniation stay in bed for a period of time to avoid causing secondary injuries to the lumbar spine during diagnosis and treatment. But I don't know when it began, and this advice gradually turned into the idea of absolute bed rest for 100 days.
Many patients hear such a statement, because of their lack of understanding of the disease, do not know that there is a misinterpretation, so they follow this method to go to bed rest. Lying in bed every day, rarely getting out of bed, it turns out that the more you lie down, the more uncomfortable you are, and you don't know what is going on, and some of them are aggravated, and the more you lie down, the more painful it is.
What's going on? Didn't you say that doctors all recommend that? Why doesn't it work? This doubt will arise.
So today we will come to the original source to explain to you how patients with lumbar disc herniation should recuperate.
1. Why should I recuperate from lumbar disc herniation? Why is absolute bed rest for 100 days wrong?
To trace back to the source, we first need to know why lumbar disc herniation should be recuperated.
Lumbar disc herniation is a degenerative lesion of the intervertebral disc that occurs in the human body with age. To put it bluntly, people are old, their bones are not working, and there is a rupture. Originally, this was a problem that people would have in the process of old age, and it would be difficult to avoid problems, and it was not a disease in the strict sense.
However, when the intervertebral disc degenerates severely, its protruding internal tissue nucleus pulposus compresses the nerves, causing low back pain, dizziness, nausea, lower limb weakness, hemiplegia and other symptoms, it becomes lumbar disc herniation. If you are standing for a long time and continue to compress the nerves, you can also cause neuroedema.
Therefore, in order to reduce the wear and tear on the intervertebral discs and the compression of the nerves, so that the compressed nerves can recover better and faster, it is necessary to rest in bed for a period of time.
Lumbar disc herniation can generally be divided into three periods: acute, remission, and rehabilitation. After a period of bed rest in the acute phase, the symptoms can be relieved and the amount of activity can be gradually increased. After this period, continued lying may be aggravated by prolonged bed rest and a posture at the waist.
When patients with lumbar disc herniation are in the acute phase, severe symptoms will appear in a short period of time, significant pain will appear in the waist, and sometimes a cough will feel a sharp back pain. At the same time, the mobility of the lower limbs is rapidly decreasing, daily activities are greatly affected, and even getting out of bed needs to be supported.
Bed rest is needed to relieve pain and minimize activity.
But rest does not mean that you must be completely bedridden and lie down for 100 days, but there is a cycle.
That is to say, it is not necessary to lie for 100 days for such a long time, as long as the disease is alleviated to a certain extent, you can gradually get out of bed and walk around under the guidance of a doctor. Long-term bed rest will have many adverse effects on the human body
Second, what is the impact of long-term bed rest on the human body?
Long-term bed rest, long-term inactivity, less muscle use in the human body, muscle endurance will gradually decrease, muscle strength will slowly decline, it will make the muscles around the lumbar spine become stiff, and even atrophy, muscle spasm.
The muscles around the spine are an important structure to maintain the stability of the vertebral body, when the muscles near the lumbar spine lose activity and the strength is too weak, it may make the vertebral body unstable and aggravate the symptoms of lumbar disc herniation. It may also affect the lower extremities, causing patients to experience mobility impairments and increased resistance to limb movement.
Secondly, bone moisture loss after long-term bed rest, with the decrease in activity, calcium loss increases, but also increases the risk of osteoporosis in patients.
In addition, when people lie flat for a long time, the blood vessel tone of the lower limbs decreases, the sympathetic excitability is reduced, and the contractility of the heart is weakened, which may make the blood flow relatively weak and the power is insufficient, thus inducing orthostatic hypotension.
Due to long-term bed rest, limbs are in a state of pressure for a long time, blood circulation is not smooth, and some body tissues can also cause pressure ulcers, ulceration and necrosis due to ischemia and lack of oxygen.
Therefore, it is generally not recommended that patients with lumbar disc herniation stay in bed for a long time.
3. How should patients with lumbar disc herniation recuperate?
Patients with lumbar disc herniation can choose a suitable bed when recuperating in bed, and it is not advisable to choose a bed that is too soft. You can choose a hardboard bed, but not too hard.
A bed that is too hard or too soft cannot maintain the physiological curvature of the lumbar spine, which is not conducive to relieving the recovery of the waist. Long-term use may also cause waist strain.
During the recuperation period, do not lie down for a long time, after the acute stage of the disease has been alleviated, you can get out of bed appropriately, walk, go to the toilet, and move appropriately every day. When getting out of bed, it is recommended to protect your waist with a waistline fixation to avoid accidents.
The waist circumference should be worn for a period of time, and we can take it off when our illness has basically eased and there is no obvious obstacle to movement.
If you feel obvious physical abnormalities or increased pain during this process, you should consult a medical examiner or go to the hospital for re-examination in time to avoid worsening your condition.
It should be noted that during the recuperation period, try to do less bending action, during this period, daily activities should not do large movements, you can do some light physical labor.
In addition, the role of motion cannot be ignored. Recuperation does not mean that rehabilitation training is not required at all, but that it is necessary to exercise appropriately, but not to overtrain.
If you are completely inactive, it is not conducive to the relief of the disease, and it will also have an adverse effect on the recovery of the patient's health.
Fourth, patients with lumbar disc herniation should not ignore exercise
Exercise can promote blood circulation and help patients relieve symptoms such as dizziness and limited mobility. At the same time, patients with lumbar disc herniation can reduce the compression of the intervertebral disc and reduce the pressure inside the intervertebral disc through exercise, which can promote the patient's recovery and reduce the lesions of the surrounding soft tissues and nerve roots.
In the remission period, the patient's symptoms have been alleviated, and some physical exercise or rehabilitation training can be appropriately added to assist the treatment. However, it is not suitable for flexion and extension exercises to avoid hurting the waist during exercise.
For example, sports such as Xiao Yanfei are not suitable for doing. Can be done to do flat support, slow walking, etc. This strengthens muscle groups, strengthens muscles, and keeps the lumbar spine flexible.
In the process of doing it, if you feel slight discomfort, you can stop, do not force. The time of exercise should not be too long, such as doing plate support, you can insist on a few seconds or a few minutes, according to your physical fitness to do reasonably, feel uncomfortable or tired to stop and rest.
During the rehabilitation period, when the body is slowly recovering, it is necessary to appropriately increase the intensity of exercise.
According to your own physical condition, under the guidance of a doctor or professional rehabilitation therapist, do some rehabilitation training, such as hip bridge, xiaoyanfei, yoga, etc. To improve the stability of the lumbar spine, strengthen the strength of the muscle groups around the lumbar spine, and stabilize the results of treatment.
However, pay attention to the posture of the movement during the rehabilitation training, and do not twist the waist too largely or too quickly, so that it is easy to damage the waist.
In addition, no matter at what stage, the exercise should follow the gradual and not be rushed. The speed and rhythm of movement should be in line with your physical state.
Tips
The key to the treatment of lumbar disc herniation is early detection and early treatment.
Therefore, in daily life, we should pay special attention to some symptoms that appear in the early stage of lumbar disc herniation, such as dizziness, nausea, slight pain in the waist, fatigue, etc. If you find that you have these abnormalities in your body and last for a long time, you should go to the hospital in time to determine the cause.
In the early stages of lumbar disc herniation, most patients can effectively alleviate the disease through conservative treatment, delay the progression of the disease, and reduce nerve compression.
So after suffering from this disease, we should not be afraid, the key is to actively treat.
Patients with lumbar disc herniation, if they suddenly feel abnormal pain, can take some pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen extended-release tablets, to relieve the pain, and at the same time, they can rest properly in bed for a period of time.