ADVERTISING: Advertorial — Pain please go away!

I often come across patients who have suffered in pain for a very long time with no resolve, despite our best efforts and multiple therapies. It can be very frustrating and depressing to get no relief. Fortunately, there is hope for some of these seemingly impossible to overcome conditions. I’m able to recommend a treatment alternative that has been very successful for many people around the world: non-surgical spinal decompression.

Spinal decompression is a specific therapy designed with basically one goal, alleviating pain that comes from injured vertebral discs, and promoting healing of the involved disc. It’s recommended for sufferers of neck and back pain that arises from disc injuries. Be it herniated or bulging disc or disc degeneration that cause spinal nerve irritation.

It’s not appropriate for all neck and back pain conditions, but it is definitely a tool in our toolbox for treating certain causes of pain. In a nutshell, spinal decompression therapy is achieved by elongating the spine with a computerized decompression table. The table stretches and relaxes the spine intermittently in a controlled fashion. Creating a negative pressure within the disc. Decompression’s ability to relieve pressure and promote healing allows your body to correct a bulging or herniated disc. Spinal discs need movement and without it, they don’t get the proper nutrients. Decompression enables more nutrients to reach your discs, resulting in faster healing.

This process doesn’t happen overnight. You have to realize the degeneration causing the pain didn’t happen overnight either. Therefore getting rid of that pain doesn’t happen after one treatment. Patients that are a candidate for spinal decompression need to be aware of the process and be committed to following the recommended treatment plan.

You may be asking yourself why you’ve never heard of Spinal Decompression therapy, or why you haven’t been referred to this treatment in the past. The truth is, traction is often marketed and offered to patients as Spinal Decompression Therapy. And they just are not the same and don’t provide the same results, therefore creating confusion on what real decompression does. Traction is a constant load which may feel good during the treatment, but the muscles remain on guard and don’t allow for the negative pressure to be created within the discs themselves. Spinal decompression uses state-of-the-art technology to apply a distraction force to the muscles (preventing them from “fighting back”) and relieve the nerve compression often associated with low back pain, sciatica, and neck pain. There are a multitude of studies that prove the effectiveness of Spinal Decompression Therapy. I have not read any studies that show success in treating disc injuries with traction therapy. These are just two of the thousands of studies proving the results and effectiveness of Spinal Decompression Therapy.

The Orthopedic Technology Review journal article “Surgical Alternatives: Spinal Decompression” published results on more than 200 patients who experienced positive results in response to non-surgical spinal decompression. 86% reported immediate pain and symptom relief, and the majority reported still being pain free three months later.

A similar small study published in Anaesthesiology News reported that 52% of patients experienced 100% pain relief, and 91% went back to normal activity levels.

Like many treatment options, non-surgical spinal decompression won’t work for everyone. And for certain groups of people, such as pregnant women, people with metal hardware in the area of treatment and others, it’s not an option. However, for those who are candidates, it can be the answer they’ve been looking for.

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Dr. Wayne M. Fichter Jr. is a chiropractor at Natural Spine Solutions. The business is located at 3913 Schreiber Way in Coeur d’Alene. For more information, please contact us at 208-966-4425.