High intradiscal pressures cause discs to bulge out and press painfully on nerve roots. They also make for a compressed, anaerobic environment unsuitable for healing. Decompression produces and sustains negative pressures within the disc, creating a vacuum effect which draws in nutrients and fluids to promote the repair of injured discs and surrounding tissues. Thisvacuum has also been shown to aid in the retraction of escaped cushioning gel from herniated discs.
When Negative Is a Positive
Much like gauging the air pressure in a car tire, scientists have been able to use pressure sensors to measure the various pressures put on spinal discs while lifting, standing, sitting, lying down, undergoing traction, and during VAX-D Therapy. Like other pressures found in the body such as blood pressure, intradiscal pressure is measured in millimeters of mercury (mmHg).
While traction, physical therapy and manipulation may reduce disc pressures to as low as 40 mmHg, only VAX-D has been shown to achieve negative pressures within the spine. Clinical studies have shown that, with VAX-D Therapy, negative pressures as low as -160 mmHg* are created within the injured disc during the treatment session!
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Traction Is Not Decompression
With traction, weights are added one by one to the end of the traction bed which in turn, adds tension to a harness secured around the patient’s pelvis,
lengthening the spine. The intention is to relieve pressure, but the linear force of this traction can produce spasming which may lead to greater injury (see case study, p. 17). Studies confirm that
the benefits of traction come from simply immobilizing the spine.* In fact, the Quebec Task Force ruled in 1996 that traction was not an effective treatment for chronic herniated discs. The results are not longlasting and cannot produce negative pressures in the disc. Decompression also lengthens the spine, but the approach is far different, and that makes all the difference.
The Logarithmic Difference
Normally, pulls exerted on the spine trigger sensory receptors in the back to tighten the muscles surrounding the vertebrae and discs in an effort to protect them from injury—a mechanism
in the body known as the proprioceptor response. VAX-D Therapy is able to detect, then bypass this response through a patented motion-controlled biofeedback system which then allows the back
to relax completely. With the body’s natural protective mechanism “distracted,” VAX-D can administer tension without causing injury. |
