How is Spinal Decompression Different than Traction?
Regular traction stretches your spine and muscles simultaneously. If you only stretch the spine, your body naturally “braces” for the next stretch reducing the ability for the treatment to be effective. This “overall stretching” commonly used in traction can also trigger painful muscle spasms.
Decompression therapy is different than conventional spinal traction, it alternate between stretching and relaxation. The relaxation stages, trick your body into staying relaxed and therefore maximizes the load and the effectiveness of the treatment.
Decompression tables should also allow your doctor or therapist to target your treatment area in 3 different dimensions. This isolates specific spinal discs and allows them to “target” their treatment, while traction often just “stretches” the entire spine.
In addition, your health care provider can completely customize your decompression treatment. They can change the amount of stretch (load), the quantity of stretch/relax stages, the amount of time it takes to reach each peak stretch/relax stage and many other setting.
