At Natural Health Center we have several treatment options available from chiropractic, medical massage and traction. In this case, we will answer the question, how does traction help your back?
Low back pain can be an extremely debilitating condition. A patient’s care depends on the case history, examination findings, and the doctors training and treatment preferences. A doctor of chiropractic may use lumbar traction in combination with manipulation and joint mobilization for a patient who has a lumbar disk pathology.
Lumbar traction is usually performed on patients with radicular pain, or pain that is experienced in the leg because of intervertebral disc conditions. These conditions include:
- disc herniations
- slipped discs
- bone spurs
- degenerative disc disease
- facet disease
- sciatica
- foramina stenosis
- pinched nerves
Using Traction to Help Back Pain
Benefits of lumbar traction are as follows: increasing the disc space, this produces a negative pressure within the disc to draw in a disc protrusion, stretching ligaments, widening the forearm, and encouraging movement of the facet joints. The process of applying traction to the back will help any trapped nerves to slip free as well as help to restore proper function to the spine. With proper function restored, inflammation will lessen meaning pain is reduced. Depending on the severity of the case, several treatments may be necessary.
Sadly, there exists no hard and fast rule for when and how to apply the traction. This leaves the decision up to each clinician to judge which is why it is important to choose one with the experience and knowledge required to make such judgements.
Studies Done on Spinal Traction
Some researchers tackle the job of developing a clinical guideline to identify patients who suffer from lumbar disc herniation. They wanted to find those who would most likely benefit from mechanical lumbar traction. Doctors applied this on over 100 patients over the course of two weeks and measured the benefits using patient history and a physical exam. Questionnaires that measured pain intensity, function, and psychological parameters were also used. The responders to the treatment were those who improved at least 50% over the initial, baseline evaluation.
Of the participants, 24 responded (about 23 percent). From this group the researchers use the following features to establish clinical production rules. Limited lumbar extension, low level fear avoidance beliefs regarding work, no segmental hypomobility in the lumbar spine, short duration of symptoms, and sudden onset of symptoms.
For the people who had at least three out of five of these predictors, The probability of pain and function improvement rose from 23% to 48% compared to patients with fewer predictors. Researchers found that healthcare providers can use each of these predictors to help select patients with the condition who will benefit from lumbar traction.
A more recent study in 2020 found that combining spinal manipulation and mobilization proved better outcomes. Chiropractors offer both treatments and will treat the whole body of the patients rather than just the specified area. These nonsurgical options work very well for the condition, and are recommended over surgical procedures.
What Can We Do for Back Pain?
At Natural Health Center, we have the knowledge and experience to make these judgements. Dr Christopher Wellwood has many qualifications in dealing with back pain and through chiropractic care, physical therapy, medical massage and regenerative medicine, we are very confident of helping you back on the road to recovery.
It is easy to schedule an appointment with us for whatever issue you are having. Simply book here. We accept many insurances and would be delighted to help you in any way we can and we hope we have gone some way to answering the question “how does traction help your back?”