Are lumbar degenerative changes serious?

Lumbar degenerative changes are a relatively serious symptom. Under normal circumstances, the function of the lumbar spine will gradually degenerate with age, which is why the elderly have difficulty in moving. If young people experience degenerative changes in the lumbar spine, it is very serious and will cause the patient to be unable to walk upright and experience numbness in the lower limbs. It will also affect our normal walking, so we need to seek timely treatment.

Lumbar degenerative disease refers to the physiological and pathological process of natural aging and degeneration of the lumbar spine. The lumbar spine is the hub of human trunk movement, and all body activities increase the burden on the lumbar spine. With age, excessive activity and overload accelerate the aging of the lumbar spine. Severe lumbar degenerative diseases can cause low back and leg pain and even nerve damage, affecting work ability and quality of life.

Clinical manifestations

Low back pain and decreased lumbar support function

This type of symptoms is mostly caused by degeneration of the intervertebral disc, wear and hyperplasia of the lumbar facet joints, lumbar scoliosis, lumbar spondylolisthesis, etc., and is characterized by worsening after standing fatigue and relief after bed rest.

2. Lower limb pain and numbness, intermittent claudication

This type of symptom is mainly related to intervertebral disc herniation, osteophyte hyperplasia or spinal canal stenosis compressing the nerves and affecting the nerve blood supply. The leg pain caused by typical lumbar disease is often manifested as sciatica, that is, pain starting from the waist or buttocks, radiating from the back of the thigh and the outside of the calf to the foot. The main symptom of intermittent claudication is that after walking for a certain distance (usually the walking distance gradually shortens as the disease worsens), the lower limbs experience soreness, numbness, swelling and pain, as if filled with lead, making it difficult to walk. At this time, the symptoms can be relieved after bending over, sitting down or squatting to rest for a while, but they will worsen again after starting to walk.

3. Urinary and sexual dysfunction

This type of symptoms may manifest as weak defecation and urination, incomplete defecation, urinary retention, decreased sexual sensitivity, impotence, abnormal erection, etc. Male urinary problems are sometimes difficult to distinguish from prostate hyperplasia. Some scholars believe that male urinary problems caused by lumbar spine diseases are often mild or severe, while the severity of urinary symptoms caused by prostate diseases is relatively constant.

prevention

Lumbar degeneration is primarily a physiological process that changes with age, and in this sense it cannot be prevented. However, because many factors can accelerate the process of lumbar aging and degeneration, causing a series of diseases and symptoms, you can pay attention to the following aspects to delay lumbar degeneration and reduce the chance of disease.

1. Avoid waist trauma and excessive fatigue.

2. Quit smoking.

3. Maintain correct standing and sitting posture.

4. Try to stay happy