Decompression Therapy
Difference Between Conventional Traction and Decompression
Traction
Regular traction stretches your spine and muscles simultaneously. However, when only the spine is stretched, the body instinctively braces for the next stretch, reducing the treatment’s effectiveness. This overall stretching commonly used in traction can also trigger painful muscle spasms.
Decompression
Spinal decompression therapy differs from conventional spinal traction by alternating between stretching and relaxation. The relaxation phases trick the body into remaining relaxed, maximizing the load and effectiveness of the treatment.
A decompression table allows doctors to target the treatment area in three different dimensions, enabling the isolation of specific spinal discs. In contrast, traction often stretches the entire spine. Additionally, decompression treatment can be completely customized by adjusting the amount of stretch (load), the number of stretch/relax stages, the time to reach each peak stretch/relax stage, and many other settings. These options allow the session to be personalized according to the patient’s age, weight, and condition, and adjustments can be made based on tracked results.
