Here’s what one German orthopedic surgeon told the CEO of SpineMED® at a recent international conference before going on the stage to lecture about a spinal surgical procedure: 

“Out of every 10 patients I see, only 2 are surgical candidates. The other 8, I put on your decompression table with amazing results!”

SpineMED® FACTS:

• There are over 250 SpineMED® Decompression Tables owned and operated by Orthopedic Surgeons in Germany. 
• In Canada, it is mostly Chiropractors and Physiotherapists who own and use SpineMED® Decompression Tables.
• This is the case in Canada primarily because of how our healthcare system is organised by the public system.

Let’s take a look at the study “Short-term Effect of SpineMED® Decompression System for Lumbar Disc Herniation” by Sun Jingtai et al., published in 2013.

The study followed 118 patients with lumbar disc herniations for 1 year and 7 months following their course of SpineMED® Spinal Decompression Therapy. The study included patients varying in age from 18 to 82 years with an average of 53. The length of time patients were in pain prior to starting the therapy ranged from 8 days to 30 years. The average rating of pain severity prior to starting was 8.9/10 (where 0/10 = no pain, and 10/10 = worst pain ever experienced).

RESULTS OF THE STUDY:

• 93% success rate in achieving ‘Excellent’ and ‘Good’ resolution of symptoms where:
  • ‘Excellent’ is defined as “pain free, movement free, resume normal life and work; and
  • ‘Good’ is defined as “symptoms almost disappeared, occasional pain, can engage in general labour without use of pain medication.”

• An average reduction from 8.9/10 pain to 1.7/10 pain.

• ZERO complications were observed in the study.

• No Relapses were observed over the length of follow up in the study of 1 year 7 months.

• 40 of the 118 patients experienced an increase in body height.

Fairway Chiropractic Centre has multiple pre and post SpineMED® Decompression Therapy MRI images in the office. We can show you the significant to complete reversal of neck and lower back disc herniations. It’s truly amazing!

Some individuals see positive changes within their first 5 sessions.

However, most take up to 15 sessions before noticing significant improvements with their pain and function.

25 Sessions are most often required to achieve long term resolution of symptoms.

A cumulative healing effect occurs with each session (which is why you need a minimum of 3 sessions per week). 

If you have tried everything to stop the debilitating pain coming from your neck or lower back, including Chiropractic, Physiotherapy, Osteopathy, Massage,…

Then, SpineMED® Decompression is strongly worth considering.

SpineMED® is a non-surgical and drug-free procedure for those who are experiencing discogenic pain caused by:

• Pinched Nerve in Neck or Lower Back
• Bulging and Herniated Discs (Disc Protrusion, Disc Extrusion)
• Neck Pain (that travels between the shoulders and the arm, with or without numbness)
• Lower Back Pain traveling to Hip, and or Down Thigh and Leg and foot with or without Numbness
• Spinal Stenosis
• Sciatica
• Degenerative Disc Disease
• Posterior Facet syndrome
• Failed Back Surgery (if no hardware was put into the spine)

You ARE NOT a candidate for SpineMED® if you meet the following conditions:

• Spinal instability (recent fractures, etc.)
• Severe Osteoporosis
• Bilateral pars defects
• Surgical hardware (rods, pins, screws, etc.) in the affected area
• Cancers or tumours of the spine
• Pregnancy
• Patients under the age of 15

Additional Note: The procedure is NOT contraindicated for post-surgical patients unless they have surgical hardware fixed in the target area. In fact, SpineMED® may be effective for failed back patients.

Injured intervertebral discs fail to heal due to the constant pressure they experience, even while a person is at rest. SpineMED® Decompression is specifically designed to relieve the pressure within the discs by carefully separating (or distracting) the affected spinal segments.

During the process of distraction, pressure on the disc is reduced. This allows fluids, nutrients and oxygen to flow back into and nourish the disc tissue. This nutrient exchange supports the body’s natural healing process and can speed up the repair and eventual healing of damaged discs.

Additionally, reducing the pressure within the disc can help draw a bulging or herniated disc back into its proper position, alleviating pressure on a compressed nerve root and reducing pain or numbness.

An inversion table provides traction to the spine. This is similar to the SpineMED® decompression table. However, the differences are the following:

1. Specificity: Inversion table tractions entire spine globally, SpineMED® Decompression Table is able to focalise traction to injured segments of spine by changing angle of your spine prior in the setup.
2. Inversion Table has not been shown to decrease the pressure within the disc effectively. The SpineMED® Decompression Table has.
3. Inversion Table uses constant traction — SpineMED® Decompression is a series of cyclical traction/relaxation allowing for both disc retraction (sucking the disc back in) as well as promoting nutrient circulation to the disc for healing
4. Constant traction from an inversion table has a risk of causing your muscles to spasm, which as a result increases compression/pressure on the injured discs. The cyclical process of traction/relaxation of SpineMED® Decompression makes this risk close to zero.
5. There is no research to show that an Inversion Table can reverse a disc herniation. There are several published research articles and clinical cases showing that SpineMED® Decompression Therapy has reversed disc herniations.

Most people assume they will feel their spine being stretched, and they look forward to it!
However, with SpineMED® Decompression, most people feel nothing during the therapy. I know that may seem disappointing, but this is on purpose – it is to ensure only just enough traction to occur to the spine without a resulting ‘fighting-back’ response by the body in the form of muscle spasms.

That being said, more people do feel some traction with the neck procedure. 

Patients sometimes fall asleep during the treatment.

Over a period of 30 minutes there will be 20 cycles of 60 seconds of traction, and 30 seconds of relaxation.

A monitor will be in front of your eyes so you can see when the traction is occurring.

You should never feel increased pain during your time on the table as a result of the traction. If you do, you must notify the technician immediately and the amount of traction force will be reduced.

Research shows that to reverse Disc Herniations 25 sessions are optimal for success. 

With each session, the cumulative benefits of SpineMED® Decompression can lead to significant pain reduction and improved overall function as patients progress through the treatment program.

Most will feel significant improvement within 10-15 sessions. And some lucky ones even notice a difference within their first 5 sessions.

For Neck Pain

To target specific cervical vertebrae, the neck unit is first electronically adjusted to the required angle. The patient then lies on the table with their head comfortably positioned in the cervical cradle. Specialized restraints gently secure the base of the skull for controlled spinal distraction.

For Low Back Pain

The patient lies comfortably face-up on the table with bent knees supported by a bolster. Secure (and patented) Pelvic Restraints are adjusted for comfort, and the doctor enters treatment parameters. The table’s pelvic tilt section electronically adjusts to target specific injured spinal segments. Then, with tension precisely controlled by the computer, the targeted disc segment undergoes gentle spinal distraction.

Based on clinical experience from multiple orthopedic surgeons in Europe who use SpineMED® Decompression Tables, and the published research, most people require 25 visits to reverse their disc herniation.

Slowest you can go is 3 sessions per week.

Minimum requirement is 3 sessions per week (which means just over 8 weeks to completion of treatment program).

Fastest you can go is 2 sessions per day (so 10 sessions per week – actually in hospital settings in Germany, they will have patients go on the table 2x/day with 3 hours between sessions for 25 days straight (including weekends).

No it does not hurt. You are not supposed to feel any pain at all. So, if there is any bit of increased pain, you must notify the technician immediately, and they will pause the therapy and decrease the pounds of tension decompressing your spine to a level where you feel zero pain.

Most people do not even feel like anything is happening! This can be disappointing for some, as they are dreaming of a stretching feeling in their spine. This is because of the way the SpineMED® Decompression table is designed. The pelvic restraints for lower back decompression and head restraints for neck decompression anchors onto your body to pull you/traction you with very little force in comparison to all the other decompression tables on the market. 

For example, some decompression tables pull on your body with a tension force of 70-120lbs. In comparison, the SpineMED® table achieves decompression of the spine with a maximum of 10% of the patients body weight (which is 20lbs for a 200lb person). 

Why such a difference between the table brands? The older table brands use harnesses made from seatbelt-like material attached to a cable or chain connected to a motor that pulls. There is a lot of ‘loss of energy’ in this system, and so a large pulling force is required to achieve the desired small traction force at the level of the disc.

SpineMED® table on the other hand is a metal restraint with soft gel-like padding that cradles the body and anchors it to the table. The metal restraint is attached directly into the metal motor. So when the motor pulls, there is zero loss of energy, and as a result much less force is required to achieve the desired amount of traction to the injured spinal segments.

The high tension force required by the other decompression table brands means you feel like you’re being stretched. Which feels nice, until it doesn’t! That much force increases the risk of your muscles to fight back into a spasm – which then increases compression on the injured spine and increasing your pain.

SpineMED® Decompression Table has an almost zero risk of muscle spasm, and because such a small amount of tension force is required, even patients in their 90s with complete confidence of safety. (the oldest patient to go on the SpineMED® table is 94 who participated in a research study with successful results) 

Regarding SpineMED® Therapy to the neck… It is more common to feel some traction/stretching. This is primarily because there are so many more nerve receptors in the neck than the lower back, making it much more sensitive. But again, no pain should be increased at any time from the therapy.

YES! 

Here’s a little history for you:

Before developing the SpineMED® System, the founders were involved in owning and partnering with multiple decompression clinics. They also ran a global distribution of decompression tables from other manufacturers to healthcare providers.

Drawing from their extensive clinical experience and feedback from healthcare professionals, the SpineMED® System was designed to address the shortcomings and adverse side effects of earlier devices. Various components including the outdated tower design, cumbersome nylon harnesses, and antiquated traction were replaced with a unique pelvic tilt mechanism, a Patented Restraint System, and advanced computer controls.

There is more of a description to this answer under this heading: ‘Does It Hurt? What Does It Feel Like? And Is It Safe?’

No it does not. They have two different points of focus.

Let’s consider this analogy:

Visualise a car with both a bad wheel alignment and also has a flattening tire.

Only fix the wheel alignment, and you still have a flat tire.

Only fix the flat tire, and you still have a wheel alignment problem which will speed up the flattening of your tire. 

If you want the car to run smoothly, you need to address both concerns.

The human body is much more complex than an automobile. 

Our body has the innate ability to heal itself! 

A chiropractor’s objective is to improve spinal alignment, which removes stress off your nervous system, allowing for the body to heal itself as best it can.

The SpineMED® Decompression Table’s objective is specific to reducing pressure on the disc, creating a vacuum effect and reversing the disc herniation.

Conservative Treatment of Pain and Disability due to Spinal Degenerative Changes using Controlled Biofeedback Decompression Mechanical Axial Traction

Qingdao China Study

SpineMED-Deutsche-Studie in Germany

SpineMED-Deutsche-Studie translated

A Multimodal Treatment Approach using Spinal Decompression via SpineMED

Effect of Decompression Therapy Combined with Joint Mobilization on Patients with Lumbar Herniated Nucleus Pulposus

Non Surgical Disc Decompression & Clinical Efficacy

DÉCOMPRESSION DISCALE NON CHIRURGICALE & EFFICACITE CLINIQUE

Retrospective Study of SpineMED Patients

Spinal Decompression: Measurement of Treatment Outcomes

The Effect of Motorized Spinal Decompression Delivered via SpineMED Combined with Physical Therapy Modalities for Patients with Cervical Radiculopathy