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Showing posts from March, 2010

Spinal Decompression or Traction Therapy

A few words about Spinal Traction Therapy, or as it is also called, Spinal Decompression Therapy. There is nothing new at all about the concept of traction therapy for treating back pain. There is evidence of its use in the times of ancient Egypt and writings from Hippocrates several centuries BC. In Chiropractic College, we were even presented with etchings dating from medieval times of a person being hung upside down on a rack with a board being placed and pressed across the low back. *** This was not a torture device .. it was state of the art therapy! Way back in our not too ancient history, traction/decompression therapy gained attention when many people took to running and jogging, and subsequently irritation mechanical problems in the low backs. The trend was to use "gravity boots," or boots that the user would strap on, pull themselves up to lock their feet onto a chinning bar, and hang free ... about as complex as hanging from the monkey bars. Despite the simplic