Do not rule out the possibility of disc herniation among younger age groups.
By Winston Lee L. Ac, Ph.D., KMD
A patient visited my clinic on Christmas Eve afternoon. A 17-year-old male high school student with his mother came here to see me, and he said that he had been exercising badly two months ago, and since then, his back has hurt, and even his right hip and leg started to hurt. He tried physical therapy and other acupuncture treatments several times but with little effect. So he came to see me on Christmas Eve.
The patient is young and male. I thought it was a general muscle strain or a back sprain. However, when I examined it, I thought it might be a kind of vertebral disc herniation caused by compression of the vertebral disc, pinching the nerve’s root from the back to the leg. This is because the patient’s lower back hurts more when coughing or laughing out loud, or sitting for a long time, and the body is bent to one side due to the pain caused by the nerve compression. Moreover, when I saw the X-ray result that day, the space between the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebrae was noticeably narrower than the other spaces. It may be because of the cartilage bone between them, the disc protruding, so the space between vertebrae has narrowed.
In this case, the patient and his mother were informed that it would not be a regular back sprain and explained that the probability of a herniated disc, a so-called ‘disc,’ was very high. At the same time, herbal medicines were prescribed to reduce disc damage and inflammation, and at the same time, motion style acupuncture treatment (MSAT), which could immediately reduce the pain that occurred, was performed. And for a more specific and detailed diagnosis, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was requested.
The following week, the patient and his mother came back to my clinic, and they were surprised that the MRI results came out exactly as I had expected. Both discs between lumbar 4/5 and lumbar 5/sacrum protrude, and the size of the protrusion was also quite large. Because of this condition, acupuncture and physical therapy for the past two months were ineffective.
He showed significant improvement after the herbal medicine and acupuncture treatment I prescribed. In addition, since the accurate diagnosis was made through X-ray and MRI, both the patient and his mother are more confident and satisfied. If the patient did not know that it was such a serious disc herniation and ignored it at that time, I think it could lead to motor or sensory paralysis or, in severe cases, to surgery.
Even at such a young age, disc herniation can happen at any time. Most low back pain is often a minor sprain, but it is not impossible to have no disc herniation just because the patient is a teenager. These days, teenagers have to study a lot and do a lot of exercises, so if the teenager usually sits for a long time for a test or assignment and suddenly engages in active sports such as basketball, skiing, or snowboarding, they may have a big problem with the disc between the spine. Excessive pressure will be added to the disc. Through this process, the disc slowly collapses and can be moved back. Several cases overlook back pain and miss the appropriate treatment time, leading to bigger problems such as surgery later.
Therefore, do not look down on kids’ back pain just because they are too young, and if the back pain lasts for more than two weeks, or the pain extends to the buttocks and legs, including the back, and the symptoms get worse with coughing or loud laughter, this is most likely a disc-related problem. Doctors need to warn the patient to have a disc-related condition and refer this patient to a diagnostic center such as X-ray or MRI and provide appropriate treatment.
