Column Professional Athletes Who Have Battled With Disc Herniation in the Past – vol.1 – Kondo Kensuke
October 3, 2024
Back pain is a condition that everyone experiences at some point in their lives. The causes of back pain are various, and include disc herniation and spinal stenosis.
Athletes suffer from their fair share of spinal disorders.
In this article, we will explain lumbar disc herniation by using the example of an athlete who suffered from this condition.
Kensuke Kondo, a baseball player who battled with disc herniation
Kensuke Kondo won a gold medal as a member of the Japanese national baseball team at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. He started playing baseball in elementary school. In 2012, he joined the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters, and in 2023 he moved to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks.
In 2017, Kondo was diagnosed with disc herniation in his lower back and underwent surgery. After the operation, he was told it would take about three months of rehabilitation before he could return to competitive play, but he was somewhat able to make a comeback during the 2017 season.
After his return, he continued to achieve good results and even won a gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics, and he is expected to continue his professional career.
The connection between baseball and disc herniation
In baseball, the players are often required to adopt a semi-squatting posture. This semi-squatting posture puts a strain on the discs in the lower back, and can easily lead to disc herniation. If you maintain that semi-squatting or crouching posture for a long time, the muscles in your back and lower back become tense, and fatigue builds up, leading to lower back pain or exacerbating existing pain.
Baseball also involves a lot of swinging movements. This also puts a strain on the rotation of the spine.
If the load on the lower back increases, the intervertebral discs will receive damage and degenerate, and their function will also decline. If the degeneration progresses further, the nucleus pulposus will protrude from the crack in the annulus fibrosus, resulting in a herniated disc.
The more the intervertebral disc degenerates, the more the water content within the disc is lost, and the thinner and more collapsed the disc becomes. This can lead to spinal disorders such as spinal canal stenosis and spondylolisthesis.
The importance of taking preventative measures from a young age
Bad lifestyle habits formed in one’s youth can eventually lead to lower back pain. That is why it is a good thing to take preventative measures against lower back pain from a young age.
It is important to build a body that can withstand back pain through reassessing one’s current lifestyle, and striving to exercise, stretch, and relieve stress daily.
If you experience temporary back pain, it is important to seek a diagnosis from a specialist rather than ignore it. Early detection and appropriate treatment can prevent worsening and even lead to a full recovery.
Our clinic’s treatment
The Cellgel Method
Spinal canal stenosis occurs when a disc cracks, causing the central component to protrude and the protruding portion to cause the spinal canal to narrow. If the disc crack is not repaired, herniation can recur, and the spinal canal can become narrowed again.
The Cellgel method used at our clinics provides a fundamental treatment by injecting a drug that fills the cracks in the disc, which then forms a gel that replaces the cracks. It is characterized by the fact that the volume of the disc is not reduced, and the drug remains in the disc as a gel-like implant after treatment, thus preserving the disc.
If you are suffering from lower back pain or have been diagnosed with a herniated disc, please consider a consultation at our clinic.
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