Hernia cure without surgery

[William Bryant]

Thanks Alephy,

Excuse my ignorance but what is PR? Also does PT mean physical training?

Finally what exercises do you do? And what would you suggest for a non physical person like myself that would help me… ,(I can’t swim).

Ironically I believe it was (over) exercising trying to get fitter due to fear of covid that may have caused my hernia.

I’m not overweight and bmi is in good level. I have avoided exercise since but am aware I will decondition.

I’m going to have to google meniscus now!

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  William Bryant.

[Alephy]

I think there is a misunderstanding on what a cure means….personally I think of that as “reduction of symptoms”. As an example in the past people were pushed into surgery whenever a meniscus problem was diagnosed: it has since been found that at 4 years the symptoms of those who had surgery and those who had PR were similar/identical, suggesting that PT be the preferred first approach to the problem. You do not “heal” from a meniscus injury, and nor do you heal with surgery (when they remove a piece of it): you can however improve your symptoms to the point of going back to what you activity was….this is also true for athletes and laymen alike.

The key to recovery (which is a better word than cure) is to diligently train your muscles (all of them). In the hernia case, training and taking care of the core muscles will likely make things better, perhaps reduce the hernia, and make it more tolerable when you go back to your daily activities (even @drtowfigh mentioned this as often her first suggestion to patients in one of her videos, if I am not mistaken). The area will never be the same as before, with or without surgery (unless some gene therapy reprograms the tissues so that they go back to the quality level they had before, which I assume will eventually be THE real cure), but you can “improve” your whole body to tackle the problem.

Basically while the local problem will remain to a degree for ever, and locally you will be worse than before, overall your whole body may actually progress beyond your previous abilities thanks to the exercise, know how in taking care of your body, and possibly different approach to training and sports.

Those who focus on the local problem, and want to sort it out to go back to their previous life, live in a different reality: the only path to recovery with or without surgery in my opinion requires exercise, and I would say after the injury you must do your exercising diligently and religiously, and for the rest of your life (I am talking about active/sportive people, just so we are clear)

I have been watching my hernia for about two years, and I train by myself few times a week. I have not gone back to full martial arts routine (mostly because of COVID) but I will soon do: will I be able to? I don’t know, but it will sure be interesting to try and find a way to adapt…

One day I might have surgery, but if that happens I will go under knife with a lot more knowledge about the procedures and my body than if I had tried to fix the local hernia alone…

[William Bryant]

Thanks all… There are some very intelligent posters on here. Sadly I’m not one of them but I do appreciate the tutoring.

I’ll confess I had to Google omentum.

However, curing a Herbie was not me, my phone auto corrected that!

Anyway, in the light of the answers it does seem as though mesh is a bit of a bodge, yet it’s ‘sold’ as hi tech.

One thing I’ve often wondered is although banned for female vaginal use it is still permitted for hernia use. There should be a clue in there about it’s (possible) effect on the body.

Failing that, there should be some sort of test available by now to determine if adverse reaction is likely.

I recently read a publication by the British Hernia Society that included a recommendation to the effect that a log should be made detailing which meshes get worst reactions. Something the more erudite posters here have suggested too). I don’t think such a record or practice exists.

[Herniahelper]

The hernia’s that heal without surgery are often not true hernia’s that represent an abdominal wall defect.

Why don’t they heal? Well the tissues are held open by tension, and also often fat is stuffed in them. More over the tissues that fail are often thin and almost membranous. Think like a stretching a laytex sheet. It’s strong. But a tiny defect propagates larger rapidly under tension.

Why can’t it be stiched? Try it. With the above example. Put a stitch in the hole in the laytex sheet above. It will probably cut right through the the material as you try and pull it tight. And your body is going to be pulling it tight every time you move.

If you fold the edges of the hole on itself, put in many layers of stitches, even incorporate a few areas of healthy laytex sheets over it so the force is distributed across a large surface area… You can kind of see in your imagination that it would be more likely to hold.

Or if you just slap a piece of flex tape across it which would be somewhat analogous to a mesh, again you’re distributing the force over a large area.

To make matters worse often the tissue that developed the defect because it had structural problems in the first place. Stiching two pieces of virgin tissue paper together is hard enough, now imagine if it’s wet to simulate prior degradation.

In essence many of the suture repairs sort of create their own mesh of sorts. They are not a single stitch but many passes and layers. I think there’s much less foreign body reaction and since you’re overlapping tissue layers I feel like there’s more opportunity for your body to remodel things into something more natural even if the original anatomy is distorted and things begin somewhat tight.

With the mesh repair there’s a much higher burden of foreign material. And if it’s creating a mechanical problem… Your body is likely not going to be able to sort it out beyond just encapsulating the heck out of it. And that may or may not resolve the problem.

[William Bryant]

Also, why does not simply stitching the hole together not work?

[William Bryant]

I was thinking the other day (yes I do think from time to time sometimes) what they would have done years ago. The middle ages, Knights of the round table, crusades etc. There must have been hernias then.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by  William Bryant.

[Good intentions]

I think that the reason the methods don’t work is because the body does not “realize” that something is wrong. There is no torn or damaged tissue. It is just stretched more than it should be, allowing more undamaged tissue, the omentum or bowel, to move to an area it not designed to be.

The trusses and belts keep the omentum/bowel where it should be but there is no natural shrinking mechanism to cause the hole to defect to tighten up.

The more you study hernias and hernia repair methods, the more you see the range from very simplistic thinking (shove a bundle of mesh in the void), to very complex thinking (recreate the anatomical structure as it was meant be using intricate suturing methods).

[William Bryant]

It sound too good to be true. And like you, I thought if bandages work, hernia belts should do the same thing.

[spinotza]

I’ve been wearing trusses, boxers for 5 years to keep my hernia in place. At my most careful the hernia would not pop out for weeks at a time. And yet the hernia is still there. Bandages can not work, Patagonia hernia cure doesn’t work. You can manage your hernia through watchful waiting and wearing a truss or boxers but you can not close the inguinal canal will not close by itself even if you are in a coma for years and you don’t move at all and lie flat on your back. Sorry!

[Alephy]

Sorry I meant always PT=Physical Therapy