Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar Traction is a therapeutic method of pain relief that uses forces to treat muscular and skeletal disorders, compressed nerves, and injuries to joints and vertebral muscles, while decompressing the intervertebral discs.
How Traction Works
Traction tables apply intermittent traction that provides decompressive forces, which helps relieve direct nerve pressure and stress on vertebral discs and surrounding tissue, while increasing vascular and lymphatic flow, and improving muscle tone and balance. We use a Flexion-Distraction table for this treatment.
Flexion-Distraction Technique
The Flexion-Distraction Technique has become the most widely used approach to treating symptomatic disc injuries involving back pain and the often-accompanying leg pain. Flexion-distraction involves the use of a specialized table that gently distracts or stretches the spine, allowing our Minneapolis chiropractors to isolate the area of disc involvement while slightly flexing the spine in a pumping rhythm. There is usually no pain involved in the treatment. Flexion-Distraction works well with lower back pain, hip pain and SI joint pain.
The tractioning or distraction of the disc, combined with isolation and gentle pumping of the involved area, allows the central area of the disc — the nucleus pulposus — to assume its central position in the disc. Flexion-distraction is thought to improve disc height and decrease low back pain. These actions move the disc away from the nerve, reducing inflammation of the nerve root, and eventually the associated pain and inflammation into the leg.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Cervical, Thoracic and Lumbar Traction used for?
It’s used to treat muscular and skeletal disorders, compressed nerves, injuries to joints and vertebral muscles, and to decompress the intervertebral discs.
What table does Lyn Lake Chiropractic use for traction?
We use a Flexion-Distraction table, which gently distracts and stretches the spine in a pumping rhythm.
Is traction treatment painful?
No. There is usually no pain involved in Flexion-Distraction treatment — it’s a gentle, controlled stretching motion.
What conditions does Flexion-Distraction work well for?
It works well for lower back pain, hip pain, SI joint pain, and disc injuries that cause accompanying leg pain.
How does traction reduce leg pain from a disc injury?
By moving the disc away from the nerve, traction reduces inflammation of the nerve root, which in turn reduces the pain and inflammation that can radiate into the leg.