Treating Back and Neck Pain With Disc Decompression Therapy

spinal stenosis

Chronic back and neck pain affects millions of people. Most people resort to medications to handle their symptoms and if the pain and dysfunction are severe enough, they undergo surgery. Yet, medications only mask the symptoms and do nothing to address the cause of the pain; surgery comes at a big expense, both financially and physically, considering surgery-related risks and far from excellent success rates.

Disc decompression therapy is a nonsurgical therapy that has been shown to effectively reduce neck and back pain and associated radicular pain into the leg, buttock, or arms to name a few examples. A study in Neurological Research found that 92% of the study participants who received spinal decompression therapy showed improvement (Neurological Research; Volume 20, Number 3, April 1998).

Disc decompression therapy is an appropriate and effective therapy for patients suffering from chronic low back and neck pain including:

• Herniated or bulging discs


• Degenerative discs


• Sciatica


• Facet syndrome


• Spinal Stenosis

Chiropractic care with disc decompression therapy can help many people avoid surgery and return to pain-free, healthy functioning lives. Chiropractors focus on the biomechanics of the body as a whole and work to address and correct the root cause of a patient's pain. With disc decompression therapy, a specifically trained chiropractor can provide pain relief and also serve to prevent future problems from surfacing.

How does disc decompression therapy work? In a nutshell, discs are avascular structures, which means they do not receive new blood and oxygen with every heartbeat. Thus, a damaged disc needs extra help to restore nutrients and enhance healing. A spinal decompression table provides the precise motion and decompression needed to repair and heal damage to discs and surrounding nerves. The procedure requires a carefully timed cycle under the care of a licensed medical professional such as a chiropractor to create a vacuum effect within the spine. Ultimately this vacuum effect can pull a herniated or bulging disc back into alignment while at the same time stimulating the blood supply within the disc to promote healing.

A disc decompression program should be part of a comprehensive chiropractic plan of care for optimal results. Additional chiropractic care may include spinal manipulations, physiotherapies, and rehabilitative exercises. A single disc decompression session lasts about 15-25 minutes. On average, 12 to 24 treatment sessions are recommended to achieve maximum healing results. Sessions are generally scheduled two to three times a week until all objective have been completed.

If you have chronic low back or neck pain visit a chiropractor for an initial assessment to determine if disc decompression therapy is appropriate for you.