Does swimming help with lumbar disc herniation?

Does swimming help with lumbar disc herniation?

1. Although lumbar disc herniation cannot be completely cured, it can be improved through exercise to avoid recurrence of symptoms. Swimming is an ideal exercise because the human body is more relaxed during swimming, which is beneficial for the reduction of lumbar disc herniation. This exercise can exercise the back muscles, so it can improve the elasticity of the muscles around the lumbar disc and play a key role in protecting against lumbar disc herniation.

2. Swimming is the best whole-body exercise. It can exercise the back, waist and abdominal muscles well. It is not easy to increase the pressure on the intervertebral disc and will not aggravate the symptoms of disc herniation. However, swimming must be done in a warm water pool to avoid catching a cold. Caught a cold may cause muscle spasms and may also aggravate lumbar disc herniation.

How to treat lumbar disc herniation?

After a patient develops lumbar disc herniation, if the patient's clinical symptoms are relatively mild and there is no obvious compression of the spinal cord or nerve roots in the lumbar spinal canal, conservative lumbar traction, physical therapy, acupuncture, combined with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and neurotrophic drugs can be used to relieve the symptoms.

If the pain is very severe, you can use some central analgesics such as tramadol. If the pain is very severe, you often need to take pethidine or morphine to relieve the pain. In addition to these drugs, you can also do some physical therapy, such as manual therapy, massage, osteopathy, orthodontics. Acupuncture and physical therapy are all relatively effective treatment methods.

Generally speaking, 80%-90% of patients with lumbar disc herniation can be treated conservatively, and 10% of patients require surgical treatment. The patients who can be treated conservatively are of the following types: those who are younger, have fewer attacks, and have a shorter illness, especially those who have had the first one or two attacks.