Learn about Spinal Stretch and the back pain conditions it treats

Conditions It Treats

Roughly 70 to 85 percent of people have experienced back pain at some point in their lives. Often times low back pain is the result of a muscle strain. The good news is that such back pain generally heals quickly in a few weeks or months.

Back pain that lasts longer than three months is referred to as 'chronic back pain' and may be indicative of an underlying condition like a herniated disc, spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease.

The effectiveness of back pain treatments can vary greatly from person to person, so it's always advisable to get a diagnosis from an experienced medical professional.

Spinal Stretch is an easy, portable and effective treatment for many of the conditions which cause low-back pain including:

• Degenerative Disc Disease
• Herniated Disc
• Muscle Spasms
• Sciatica
• Scoliosis
• Spinal Stenosis

The Science of Back Pain:

Excerpted From Our Comprehensive Research Report. Download here.

Low back pain is one of the most common physical conditions requiring medical care and the statistics below from the Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons1 suggest it is rapidly approaching epidemic proportions:

• Approx. 80% of all Americans will experience back pain.
• Approx. 20% will suffer back pain severe enough to affect their ability to work, with 5% being unable to work at all.
• In 2004, over 40 million people sought medical treatment for low-back pain.

The problem has been our collective failure to understand the root cause of most back pain – the drying out of the spinal discs. Whether it is sciatica, stenosis, scoliosis or degenerative disc, too much time is spent focusing on the symptoms and not enough time examining the root cause.

There are many causes of back pain but the most common one is none other than the Earth's gravity. In fact every waking moment of our lives gravity is compressing the spine and dehydrating the spinal discs.

The only time gravity relaxes its grip is when you sleep at night. This approximate eight-hour period gives the horizontal spine the time to 'unload' and allows thirsty discs to reclaim moisture that was squeezed out during a long day of standing and sitting.

Over a period of years our activities of daily living can squeeze more water from the discs than can diffuse in at night. This dehydration process is accelerated by such factors as excessive sitting,2, p. 136 or weight gain.3

As fluid is lost the pH balance of the disc is affected--resulting in an acid build up which can weaken and even tear the disc wall--allowing disc moisture to be expelled at an even faster rate.2, p. 138

The initial process of acid build-up usually occurs undetected as there are no nerves inside the disc. A common chemical contributor to back and/or leg pain is when acid leaks out through a tear in the disc and stimulates the nerves along the outer disc wall.2, p. 241

More than 20 years ago, William Kirkaldy-Willis M.D., the renowned spine surgeon credited with first explaining how the spine degenerates,3,4,5 revealed that all of the blood vessels supplying the spinal discs disintegrate by age 32, p.137 thus eliminating their contributions to disc hydration and nutrient supply. From that point on, the discs must survive on the meager amounts of water and nutrients that slowly diffuse in from surrounding tissue when pressure on the discs is reduced while reclining.

This dehydration is one of the factors leading to the initiation of the 'Degenerative Cascade' as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Mechanical factors contributing to the degenerative cascade of back pain. Adapted from2, p.90

The initial process of acid build-up commonly occurs undetected as there are no nerves inside the disc. A common chemical contributor to back and/or leg pain is when acid leaks out through a tear in the disc and stimulates the nerves along the outer disc wall.2, p. 241

Treating the root cause of back pain means decompressing/unloading the spine to increase the flow of water into the dehydrated disc.

On a mechanical level this helps 'pump up' the disc and keep the vertebrae from jamming. On a chemical level, rehydrating the disc not only helps 'flush out' the harmful acid, it increases the flow of vital nutrients needed for the injured disc to heal.

Over a decade ago, Dr. Kirkaldy-Willis warned that:

"... if the normal lumbar spine is not unloaded at least once a day, cumulative and irreversible injury to the cell matrix [disc] takes place. As our society becomes more sedentary, the role of repetitive trauma is becoming more important. Awareness of this provides the opportunity to produce productive change." 2, p.136)

To summarize these authoritative findings, lack of water and nutrients to the disc is the main reason discs begin breaking down. This is a process that starts early in life with dehydration of the disc leading to altered metabolism, poor nutrient supply, and acid build-up. The consequence of this acid build-up is nerve irritation, back and/or leg pain and ongoing disc destruction. But when the discs are provided with water and nutrients the acid is reduced, pain moderates, and the disc cells have the ability to regenerate new disc material.

Spinal Stretch was developed to focus on this root cause of back pain by decompressing the spine with pulling forces in the recommended therapeutic range, allowing inward movement of water and nutrients to the disc interior. This rehydration results in removal of the acid formed in the dry disc that has caused damage and pain. Regular and frequent use of Spinal Stretch offers many back pain sufferers a simple, convenient, effective, and inexpensive way to actually treat the root cause of their low back pain.

REFERENCES

1. American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, AAOS Now, January 2009
2. Kirkaldy-Willis W, Bernard TN. Managing low back pain. 4 ed. New York: Elsevier - Churchill Livingstone, 1999.
3. Rengachary SS, Balabhadra RSV. Black disc disease. Neurosurg Focus 2002;13:1-4.
4. Caputy AJ, Spence CA, Bejjani GK, et al. The role of spinal fusion in surgery for lumbar spinal stenosis: a review. Neurosurg Focus 1997;3:e3; discussion 1 p following e4.
5. Haig AJ, Colwell M eds. Back pain: a guide for primary care physicians. 1 ed: American College of Physicians Key Diseases, 2005.