To understand spinal decompression, you must first understand the importance of your discs. Located between each vertebra is a cartilage disc. This disc is to act as a spacer to keep the vertebrae apart. It also acts as a rubber bushing, providing a spinal shock absorber. They also provide a specialized surface for each vertebra to mechanically move on. This movement is necessary to nourish the discs.
As vertebrae move, they exert “load pressures” onto the disc. When a disc becomes “over-loaded” or “squeezed,” these extra pressures weaken the disc’s outer border. Two common reasons are strenuous activities and repetitive activities. A lack of mobility or restricted spinal mobility can also lead to “over-loaded” or “squeezed” discs. As the outer border becomes weak, the inner disc gel begins to bulge or herniated beyond the outer border onto any neighboring nerves. This causes debilitating pain. Spinal decompression can help reverse some of these effects.
Spinal decompression is defined as vertebral unloading with spinal positioning. It is a specialized mechanical therapy used to “un-pinch” nerves, release muscle tension, and relieve cervical and spinal pain. It works by slowly increasing the spacing between vertebrae. The increased spacing creates a pressurized vacuum within the bulged disc, moving it off the nerve, retracting it into its pre-pressured border, and allowing blood and important nutrients to flow into the vertebral discs.
As the ligaments that hold disc material in place become stretched or torn due to bulging and herniation, spinal decompression strengthens the ligament bands that hold the disc material in place to heal and prevent future recurrence.
Spinal decompression therapy has many years of research and practice. It can benefit people who suffer from:
Herniated Discs
Disc Bulges
Pinched Nerves
Numbness and/or Tingling
Neck Pain
Headaches
Hip Pain
Leg Pain
Arm Pain
Shoulder Pain
Elbow Pain
Wrist Pain
Sciatica
Whiplash
Radiculopathy
Pins & Needles
Failed Spine Surgery
Low Back Pain
Vertebral Compression Syndromes, Compression Sport Injuries, Osteoarthritis and Restricted Spinal Range of Motion can also benefit from Spinal decompression.
At Unruh Chiropractic we strive to provide the most advanced and state-of-the-art treatments available. Our office provides spinal decompression using Eurotech’s DOC System. The DOC System is the most-state-of-the-art spinal decompression treatment available. Using the digital command center the DOC System is capable of specific vertebral targeting. This allows our practitioners to focus primarily on the patient’s problem area(s) rather then the general area like most tables. The DOC System also allows for separate lumbar and cervical decompression programming and continuous readout and graphing of treatment protocols. Using R.A.M.P. (reflex auto monitoring program) the DOC System automatically checks, rechecks and monitors the program time, active poundage, resting poundage and hold/relax time. This ensures that each patient receives the treatment they need.
The DOC System provides articulating decompression, defined as decompression that can vary the posture of the spinal column during the treatment. This means the practitioner is able to strategically position the spine into a variety of postures to make the treatment more effective. Basic linear decompression systems cannot. This posturing improves how the therapy moves through the spine. It enables the decompression to reach into areas of the injury that the “older systems” miss.
This articulation can improve the range-of-motion as it continues to make the joints healthier. The spine has many ranges of motion. They include flexion (bending forward), extension (bending backward), lateral flexion (bending side to side) and most important, rotation. A healthy spine must seamlessly move through all of these motions without pain. Anything less may be due to an injury or may be a pre-cursor to injury. Damage to back or neck muscles as well as spinal alignment issues can limit our spine’s ability to move. Limited or painful movement indicates the need for treatment.
Spinal decompression is advanced traction. It utilizes a set of sophisticated computers and poundage sensors to control how the spine is elongated. The old traditional traction simply pulls the spine back and forth. But with computers we’re able to customize the pull-release pumping into a specialized pattern that can rehabilitate the cartilage of the disc and surrounding tissues. Traditional traction could never do this. The DOC System has the ability to target tissues using its articulation feature.
Lastly, the DOC System can adjust and vary the “holding times” of its pull and release cycling. Different holding times affect different tissues. For example, longer holding times affect the disc while shorter times affect muscle and tendon. Other systems are limited to one pattern.
By using computers to control and modify the characteristics of the pull-release cycling, traditional traction evolved into decompression. The DOC System evolved decompression even further with its unique articulation features. It has more treatment options and is more advanced than any other system in the world. Your doctor will decide which features and protocols are best for you.
For more information or to schedule a free spinal decompression consultation, please call Unruh Chiropractic, Inc. at 661-288-0022. The office is located at 23206 Lyons Avenue, Suite 110 in Santa Clarita.
