Spinal Traction

It's funny to see all the hype directed towards "non-surgical spinal decompression" and the like, because I had a Saunders portable lumbar traction unit in my office in the Philly suburbs back in 2000. I would place nearly all my patients (about 12 total, I starved!) on lumbar spinal traction as part of their treatment regimen.

This unit had two pieces on a rail that slid apart under hydraulic pressure created from hand pumping the device to patient comfort level. It was rated at about 200 lbs of traction, but for some of my chronic low back pain patients, I could have used an extra 50 lbs or so.

Regardless, I had great results from that unit, and am not surprised that it has taken off again recently. I am sure it has a lot to do with shrinking insurance reimbursements for chiropractic care, and the mass aging of the baby-boom generation. Doctors often collect cash for the treatments, although it's dropping of course, due to more and more clinics offering the treatment. Modern technology and manufacturing methods has produced some excellent, although expensive, decompression/traction machines that are far ahead of my little portable unit from those earlier days.

I believe that decompression, or traction (I am not sure what the actual difference is, please someone tell me!) is even better for the neck and upper back, as compared to the low back.

The low back, with its wide vertebrae, and ligamentous support system, is well suited to compression under body weight, all day if need be. Power-lifters routinely squat with three times their body weight, with no ill effects on this region of the body. The neck and upper back on the other hand, are much more sensitive to compression and trauma, and have a real balancing act to perform on a daily basis.

Regular neck traction, with about 2/3 to 1 x body weight, under 225 lbs, can have a dramatic effect on spinal health and well-being, especially if you have previous damage or impingement from a car accident or other spinal trauma. I know it helped me immensely, as I had almost constant "tightness" in my mid-back of varying degrees since a car accident in 1974, when , at the age of 14, I was the rear-seat passenger in a car that was rear-ended by a couple of drunk Navy guys in Virginia Beach, VA.

I had severe neck pain for several weeks, but I don't even think my parents brought me to a doctor, for whatever reason. Regardless, I noticed a "kink" in my mid-back ever since, between the shoulder blades, and often the long spinal muscles on the right side of my mid back would be tight as guitar strings.

At first I assumed the discomfort stemmed from my low back, even though it did not hurt, and I proceeded to invent various exercises and stretches for my low back through the years. I gained temporary relief from the pain and tightness sometimes, but it always returned, resulting in a lot of frustration for me. The condition lasted well into adulthood. I would hear a little voice in my head sometimes, "My back shouldn't hurt. I am a bodybuilder and athlete."

It wasn't until I worked in Ben Lerner's office in 2006, he of the "Body By God" books, that I discovered the Pettibon Cervical Traction device, and I (finally!) found lasting relief from my almost life-long mid-back pain.

I was afraid of the device at first, putting only a bit of weight on my neck to begin. It felt so good, that I purchased the device and placed one on the door to my office at home. Every time I felt the old tightness in my back, I would traction my neck using only a portion of my body weight, doing about 5 repetitions, and the muscles would relax, for a while.

Eventually I got so confident and so used to cervical traction that one day I hung completely in the air by my head for a few seconds, causing a vertebra in my mid back to move and separate with a "pop!" Alarmed, I put my feet immediately back on the floor and stood up.

The pain in my back, there since the accident in 1974, was completely gone! I was without discomfort in my back for the first time in years. I could hardly believe it. The relief has lasted ever since, although I stretch my neck on a regular basis, just to be sure.

All I can determine, from how it felt, and taking from my education in spinal health, is that a vertebra was "jammed" and rotated somehow from the accident. Maybe even the growth plate was damaged at my young age, and that it was not noticeable on x-ray, nor did any one of the many chiropractors I had seen through the years ever manage to find and fix the problem. Fixing it was almost an accident, but thank you God, "Body by God", and Burl Pettibon. I am cured!