What You Need To Know About Spinal Decompression
At South Texas Non-Surgical Spinal Center, we have been using decompression in our San Antonio office for several years to successfully treat:
*Click on the links above for more information.*
Spinal decompression has proven to be highly effective in the vast majority of cases in not only reducing (and often eliminating) symptoms, but actually correcting disc bulging and improving disc health.
"Is Spinal Decompression Just A Short-Term Fix?"
We have heard some well-intentioned, but poorly-informed doctors express the opinion that spinal decompression is nothing more than an expensive "band-aid" and that it does not actually produce any significant structural change in the discs. These misinformed doctors believe that even if it does help reduce symptoms, it can't possibly produce any real disc healing, so the patients will eventually need surgery anyway.
Obviously, these doctors are entitled to their opinions, but these opinions are not based in fact, as demonstrated in the following video, which features noted radiologist, Dr. Terry Yochum:
Click On The Image Below To View The Video.
In case you were wondering what Dr. Yochum meant by "getting a muffler", he was using a metaphor: If you go to Midas, you're going to get a muffler. If you go to a back surgeon (with the types of problems showing on the MRIs in the case studies), you're going to get a back surgery.
Clearly though, the case studies shown on the video no longer needed surgery and the severe disc herniations were dramatically improved by the decompression treatment. This is not to say that every patient will get such great results, but based on our experiences using spinal decompression in our San Antonio office, such results are pretty common.
How Does Spinal Decompression Work?
Spinal decompression is a "high-tech" version of spinal traction. Spinal traction has been used for many years in the treatment of back pain, but its results always fell short when it came to the treatment of spinal disc herniations and degeneration. Why? Well, when you start to pull on the spine with regular traction, the muscles begin to contract and resist the treatment.
Because of this, there are two problems in treating disc-related pain with regular traction:
First, because the muscles are contracting as the traction pulls, this often irritates and can even damage already sensitive muscles, producing even greater pain!
Second, because of the strong contraction of the muscles, it is much more difficult to produce separation of the spinal bones, and to reduce the pressure in the discs enough to make any signficant changes in the amount of disc bulging.
Spinal Decompression Is A Type of Traction, BUT It Is Different From Regular Traction!
"True" decompression machines use computer-controlled motors to modulate the traction pull in such a way that it does not provoke significant muscle contraction around the spinal area being treated. Because there is little to no muscle resistance to the treatment, spinal decompression is much more comfortable and has a much greater positive effect on the spinal discs than regular traction.
Spinal Decompression Produces Negative Pressure (Suction) Inside The Disc!
Experiments on regular traction showed that although traction does decrease the pressure inside the disc and may provide benefits in terms of muscle stretching and joint mobilization, it does not produce enough decompressive effect in the discs to significantly reduce disc bulging.
In contrast, "true" spinal decompression machines can produce strong negative pressure, or suction as you probably know it, inside the discs. This allows for the bulging disc material to be pulled back towards the center of the disc. In effect, it's almost like someone stuck a drinking straw into the center of the disc and sucked the disc bulge back in.
The other benefit of the suction force produced by decompression is that fluid and nutrients are drawn back into the disc, to promote disc healing and regeneration. In the case of degenerated discs, this increase in fluid can help restore disc height and reduce pressure on arthritic spinal joint surfaces.
The following video illustrates the basic effect of spinal decompression, using the DRX9000, the system we use in our San Antonio office:
You May View The Video By Clicking On The Image Below.
With time and repeated treatments, the disc wall gradually heals and stabilizes to be able to keep the bulging material contained, resulting in long-term correction.
Althought most patients with disc-related pain get excellent results with our treatment program, not every patient is a suitable candidate for spinal decompression. There are rare situations in which spinal decompression is contraindicated and/or reasons why we might choose to not accept a patient into our San Antonio office's spinal decompression program.
Click Here For Information About Cases That Are Not Suitable For Decompression.
What Is "True" Spinal Decompression?
When the first studies on spinal decompression started being published and the results were so positive, there was a huge rush by medical equipment manufacturers to capitalize on this new market. Because the time and cost of developing a true spinal decompression system that does not violate existing patents can be considerable, many manufacturers have taken a much simpler, although rather deceptive, approach to getting a decompression machine on the market - they simply renamed their traction machines as "spinal decompression" machines!
But how could they possibly get away with this? Well, as we've stated earlier, spinal decompression machines are a type of traction machine. Furthermore, the Food and Drug Administration has formally classified spinal decompression machines as traction machines. Because of this huge legal loophole, there are many regular traction machines on the market that have been "re-labled" as spinal decompression machines.
There are arguably only a few "true" spinal decompression machines that have the technology to actually reduce disc pressure sufficiently to pull disc bulges back in and thereby produce long-term correction. Of those, fewer yet have produced any research to prove the effectiveness of their machines. Instead, most manufacturers have taken a "me too" approach, insisting that their traction machines do exactly the same thing as the more advanced spinal decompression systems without doing ANY research on their machines (not even a single case study!) to support that assertion.
But wait a minute! Wouldn't the FDA crack down on these unsupported claims? Well, in this instance, the answer is "no". The FDA only requires that the machine manufacturers demonstrate safety and effectiveness. Since these decompression "knock-offs" are classified by the FDA as traction machines (just as true decompression systems are), they are FDA cleared as safe and effective for what traction machines do. As stated earlier, regular traction does produce some beneficial effects, but those effects are nowhere near what can be produced with true spinal decompression systems.
Adding to the confusion, many facilities using the "renamed" traction machines will often quote statistics from several research studies to support the use of their machines that were actually done on OTHER MACHINES ("true" decompression machines)!
For example, one of our spinal decompression competitors in the San Antonio market has an extensive research section on his website, but only one reference listed on his website has anything to do with the machine he is using!
The reference that does apply to the machine he is using did show symptomatic improvements in most of the test cases, but the average reduction in symptoms was only about 36% - about what can be expected for a regular traction machine!
There are a few good "true" decompression machines on the market and we looked at several machines before selecting the one to use in our San Antonio office. Although the "Vax-D" machine was the first on the market, and is the most-researched of the true spinal decompression machines, we have chosen to provide decompression services using the newer DRX9000.
The DRX9000 has some enhanced design features that we feel make it more patient and technician "friendly" than the Vax-D. Both the published research and the fantastic results we've seen with our spinal decompression patients in our San Antonio, Texas clinic have continued to strengthen our belief in this machine.
There are a lot of reasons why we like the DRX9000, but the most important reason is:
It Works!
