The level of care we strive for with every patient is high. Adjustments, therapeutic exercise, soft tissue work, etc all have their place but none of these treatments can achieve a significant and consistent amount of negative pressure within the discs which is a huge part of what we are treating on a day to day basis at the clinic. Spinal traction decompression (traction for short) on the other hand accomplishes this comfortably and safely, offering a treatment specifically tailored for bulging discs and the like. Traction is a staple here at the clinic and for good reason: superior outcomes.

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Disc injuries

It's often hard to know when pain is coming from a disc injury or elsewhere. As a chiropractor, a large majority of problems I see in the clinic are indeed related to disc injuries, both acute and chronic. The reason that it may be difficult to understand has to do with our intricate neurology and our bodies biochemical response to tissue damage.

 

Our discs provide some movement and shock absorption between the vertebrae. They are particularly prone to wear and tear, injury, and arthritis. It should be noted that the discs themselves do not have a lot of pain sensing nerve endings and are rarely "painful" in isolation. The inflammation, which is a response by our body to heal injured or diseased tissues, becomes the pain generator. All of a sudden, everything in proximity to the disc injury is flooded with an inflammatory mix and joints become painful, muscles ache and spasm, nerves get hypersensitive and start a cascade of downstream effects.

 

The nerves that exit our spinal cord (spinal nerves) do so in close proximity to our discs and are often the most clinically significant aspect of disc injuries. These spinal nerves have tens of thousands of individual nerve fibers all kind of bundled together with half going to muscles (motor fibers) and half going to our skin and other tissues to provide for sensation or feel (sensory fibers). It comes down to a bit of luck (or bad luck) which fibers are most affected and just how extensive the damage is.

• Motor Fibers - These nerves give the signals to our muscles to contract or relax. When they are irritated or injured they start malfunctioning resulting in small spasms and trigger points within the muscles that they serve and at worse may result in paralysis of the muscle they innervate. For example, a disc injury in the neck may cause intense pain in some muscles around the shoulder blade or cause a loss of grip strength.

• Sensory Fibers - These nerves provide signals to our brain about what the skin and tissues are feeling. When they are irritated or injured they start malfunctioning resulting in nerve pain or a loss of sensation in the areas they innervate. For example, a disc injury in the low back may result in numbness in the foot or electric/burning nerve pain down the leg.

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Lumbar traction decompression

Spinal traction decompression of the lumbar spine requires forces equivalent to 40-60% of our body weight with a considerable variation in tolerance from patient to patient. Treatment is generally comfortable and I will help find an appropriate weight and frequency to start at. We generally start with a lighter pull and progress to a heavier pull as spasms subside and the discs begin to heal.