Neck Pain and Acute Lower Back Pain Treatment

Anyone who lives with back, neck, arm and/or leg pain.

Very safe and non-invasive.

Non-surgical spinal decompression involves the use of a decompression machine but the real skill and success is dependent on the level of training of the physical therapist. Since decompression is new to many clinics, it may be hard for them to get the proper training. Many believe that just the use of the decompression table is enough but we know from our many years of training that each patient and diagnoses may need to use the table in a slightly different way. For example, the position of the patient on the table or the elevation can change the type of treatment. Just moving the table by an inch can make the difference between success or failure. We have even found that certain patients do better laying on their stomachs then their backs. Our therapists will be happy to take the time to explain this process and answer any questions you may have about non-surgical spinal decompression and the role it could play in your treatment.

Non-surgical spinal decompression has taken spinal traction into the 21st century and is far superior to traditional traction. According to studies performed with the VAX-D (one of our decompression units), researchers have actually measured a negative pressure on the fluid of the inside of the disc of -160 mmHg. What that means to you, is that we can take pressure off the nerve and actually “suck back in” the jelly-like contents of the disc, increase the nutrition to the disc, and reduce the disc bulge or herniation.

That’s a great question! That’s where the other parts of our program come in. The key to keeping the pressure off of the injured disc wall involves aquatic decompression. When our astronauts went into space, they discovered that their back pain lessened and upon arrival back to Earth and MRIs showed that their discs had gained height. We can mimic the anti-gravity environment of space with our warm water therapy pool to prolong the decompression process. The next and equally important part of the program is a home exercise program, to be performed on a regular basis. This may involve an activity as simple as laying on your stomach for short periods of time throughout the day. I promise we won’t give you pages of exercises to do. The purpose of the home exercise is to keep the gel centered in the disc allowing for healing of the disc wall that was bulged.

Our program consists of three parts:

1. Spinal decompression on one of our machines.
2. Aquatic exercise and decompression-this is a way of introducing a traction force on the spine, in a warm water, relaxing environment.
3. Education and a home exercise program designed to decrease physical stress on discs. It’s very important that a patient understand the nature of his/her problem so he/she can understand the rationale for the home exercise program. Home exercise programs are kept simple and need to be performed on a regular basis to allow the injured tissues to heal.

At Complete Care at Holiday Park, we are advancing the science of non-surgical spine care well into the 21st century, and to our knowledge, we are the only therapy clinic using the protocols that we have developed through the years of experience in working with spine patients.

Our goal is to actually solve the problem by addressing the cause. This basically involves mechanically controlling where the fluid sits in a disc through a combination of computerized spinal decompression, aquatic exercise and decompression, and a simple regular exercise program. This results in a reduction of the disc herniation. If proper time is given to healing the disc bulge, this usually results in a positive, long-term outcome.

The body is an amazing creation with a wonderful ability to heal itself if given the right environment. If any soft tissue is inflamed, and you don’t take the irritability factor away, it is never going to heal properly. For a herniated disc, this involves mechanically controlling where the fluid sits in a disc, remodeling the disc wall, and keeping the pressure off of the nerve around the disc to abolish the symptoms.

If you have back pain or neck pain, or pain radiating into one or both arms/legs, we can likely help you. This includes the diagnosis of bulging or ruptured discs, sciatica, DDD, spinal stenosis or facet arthropathy.

There are several benefits to exercise in the water. The pool is between 92-94 degrees, which allows sore muscles to relax. There are several decreased forces on the lateral sides of the legs and spine in gravity neutral environment of water. It’s a great way to introduce gentle traction stress on the spine and prolong the decompressed state of the disc that we are working to accomplish.

That varies depending on the severity of our condition. Normal healthy tissue can heal in 6-8 weeks if we can keep the stress off of the tissue long enough to allow it to heal. This holds true for discs as well. If a patient follows all the parts of our program, they can expect the average treatment time to take anywhere from 4-12 weeks.