what is the best thing to keep your back healthy when you hava a herniated disk in the lower back?

Too serious a condition to waste on the collective. See orthopod and possibly a physical therapist immediately. Avoid surgery except as a very (VERY) last resort.

Sympathies from a fellow back pain sufferer. Good luck

This book is my bible:
Healing Your Back Naturally by Dr. Art Brownstein.

Simple stretching and physical therapy help a lot. Though I’ve also healed by back via two surgeries, after trying everything alternative. Try to SIT as little as possible. Sitting is the worst position for your spine. Lie down, with your feet up on a chair, and alternate heat and ice on your back, 15 minutes each, as often as you can.

Once the pain subsides, stay active and healthy, never lift anything, don’t sit for more than 30 minutes without standing up and stretching, and read the book!

Diana said it for me but let me add this. I fell off a truck and broke the 3rd vertabra in my neck. By the time the people at differant hospitals figured out what was wrong my neck had arthurized to where it wouldn’t/couldn’t move, that was after suffering intense pain for 3 years and looseing nearly all my muscle mass,195lbs to 145. This happened in 1984. What saved me was that I kept going/working, etc. So really the more you keep going the better it will be in the long run, just don’t over do it.
Hope this helps.

@Charlie; I am truly sorry about your accident and subsequent suffering. You were lucky that you found a solution that worked for you.(And certainly not a good diet-du-jour. Losing 50 lbs is really dreadful and I hope that you have plumped up since 1984,)

I think that spinal injuries are too dangerous to treat with umbrella advice we might offer here, based on our personal experience.

BTW, I have no clue what an arthurized neck is..Do you mean that you had developed arthritis, limited range-of-motion, paralysis, stiffness? Might you explain, plz?

Yes, it calciumated to where it doesn’t move BUT it is still broke and still bothers me alot. I was also warned to never hit my forehead at an angle that would push my head backwards for fear that it could jar the calcium or arthurized parts off. ?? The spinal cord is about the size of a persons little finger. Mine is the size of a toothpick. My history is at a medical research clinic in Denver, Colo. because I should be paralized or dead and they don’t know why I’m not either. The human body is a wonderful thing and usually can repair itself to a degree. I am the 2nd person that the Medical people know of that has this brake and still walking as tho it wasn’t. It took time to get to where it is but as the Docters said, they probably couldn’t have done much with it anyway at that time without haveing a 50–50% that it would work or not.
My neck has limited movement from side to side, about half of what it should be and I have stiffness between my shoulders, my right arm went dead for nearly 4 monthes and I lost alot of muscle mass. I was muscle-bound anyway but that is what saved me, so the doc said. But other then what I have said here, I live a normal life other then haveing it hurt some once in awhile but the Doc also said that I have the pain it’s just that my body has cancelled it out. I do have a lower then normal blood preasure but not to worry and the weather changes tend to effect me more when it comes to the high and low preasures, particularly the low ones. I take 3 Aleve every morning for any aches I may have but then I’ll be 66 years old this April so I don’t blame it all on my neck.
Also, when I broke it, I went a month before I went to a Docter, actually the Hospital emergency but they wouldn’t even look at me so I went to my regular Doc and He called it a muscle spasim and gave me relaxers of some kind tho it didn’t work. I ended up at my Chiropracter and He did the most good by putting the bones below the brake out of place which took the preasure off the brake. I went to him for two monthes every day and I think He is the only one that actually kept me going. Still, I drove a truck, Semi, up until 1991, over-the-road, 3000 miles a week! I guess I am proof that Time heals everything! HA!
Hope this helps.