A Great Treatment for Low Back Pain in Portland, ME

Hi, I'm Dr. Rob liguori. And this is Dr. Chelsea Schultes here with Chiropractic & Sports Health, here to talk to you about one of the treatments that we like to do for somebody with a lumbar injury. That injury can range from anything from disc related problems, radiculopathies, or even spinal stenosis.

Lumbar Traction And Spinal Decompression

So this type of therapy was designed to do is to help traction out the vertebrae in the low back. So a really gentle, slow, progressive decrease in compression there to help alleviate any type of nerve pain that might be associated with it. But also help bring blood flow into the into the disc area too, with a slow pumping motion.

What Lumbar Traction Looks Like

So what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna set her up in this and just kind of show you how we go about that. And, and start the machine and just kind of see, show you how it all goes. So I already got her in place here. So I'm gonna put her down with this wrapped around her, her hips, okay. So starts with that now this belt is going to hold their hips a little snug, just so that it helps with the with the actual pull. So that goes right through like that, tighten it right up, it should be snug, but not uncomfortable. And then this belt goes in the over across the upper back to help pull some some counter pull in the opposite direction. So she's got the belt on there, I'm then going to hook up this piece. And then this is going to attach right over to here, where I'm gonna go back and pull out the room.

Where The Tension Comes From

So this is where all the tension is coming from, that's gonna hook up like that I take the slack out. So now she's hooked up there, with just a little support under the nice. Okay, so I feel comfortable for you. Okay, so she's all in place now. So that's all good. So I come over here, I'm gonna adjust specifically or how I want the tension to be. So we have a digital computer that will actually measure how much force we use, we typically start people off with really low amount of tension.

Setting Up The Resistance Level

So I'm gonna set her up here for about 40 pounds of pull with a lower end of about 20. And I can even set the time. And usually when somebody starts off at this is a much lower period of time. So we're going to start with the minutes, usually building somebody up to about 15.

Traction Machine Takes Over

So now I've started the machine up. And to be honest, in the video, you're probably not gonna see too much because it is really a very slow compressive pull, which you should feel on her end is just a little bit of tension around that belt as a spark as it starts to, to pull down around the hips. And it's gonna bring you up to that point, and making sure that it's all comfortable for her. It's going to bring it through that cycle a few times, where it kind of goes up in that tension drops back down into some lighter tension goes back and forth for a few cycles for that duration of the eight minutes. And then once it's done, it beeps and she's all set. And again, that's something that we'll do at the end of our sessions, through our treatment plan with people to help alleviate that nerve pain and then hopefully, see them improve as time goes on.

Learn more about Chiropractic Care and Low Back Pain.