Neck and back pain that will not quit. You have probably tried heat, rest, maybe a few stretches you found online. Some of it helped for an afternoon. Then the pressure came back.
Traction Therapy (Invertrac) works on a different problem. It eases the load on your spine by gently creating space between the vertebrae. Less compression on the discs. Less pinch on the nerves. At Glendale Chiropractic, Dr. Brockway uses it as one tool inside a larger plan, never as a magic fix. Here is the straight forward version of what it does and what it does not.
What Traction Therapy Is, and Why It Is Not the Old Hospital Kind
Traction is an old idea. Pull the spine, make room, take pressure off whatever is compressed. The mechanics are simple.
People sometimes hear the word and picture a hospital bed. Weights, pulleys, pins in bone, weeks flat on your back. That version got phased out of orthopedic surgery years ago, and for good reasons. Infection risk. Muscle wasting from lying still. It was a blunt tool.
That is not what happens here. Modern therapeutic traction is gentle and brief. You lie on the Invertrac. A controlled, measured stretch separates the vertebrae a few millimeters. Ten minutes, maybe twenty. No pins. No bed rest. You get up and walk out.
How Traction Works on the Spine
The spine stacks bones with cushioned discs between them. Gravity, posture, old injuries, all of it presses that stack down over the years. Discs flatten. The little openings where nerves exit start to narrow.
Traction reverses the squeeze for a while. The pull opens space between vertebrae. Pressure drops inside the disc. Nerve roots get a bit more room. Blood flow improves through the area, which is what tissue needs to repair itself.
That is the theory, and most of it holds up in the research. What traction does not do is hold the change on its own. Stand up, gravity returns, the spine loads again. The relief is real but temporary unless you pair it with something that addresses why the spine got compressed in the first place.
What Traction Therapy Helps With at Our Office
Traction tends to help most when the symptoms come from compression. A few patterns we see often:
- Neck trouble, especially the kind that sends pain or tingling down into the shoulder or arm.
- Back pain that radiates into the hip, the buttock, or down the leg.
- Sciatica and other radiating nerve symptoms.
- Stiffness and muscle spasm that flares when you sit too long.
For ongoing neck pain, traction usually rides alongside hands-on care rather than replacing it. For stubborn low back pain, the same logic applies. And symptoms like sciatica respond best when the source really is compression, which is the part we confirm before starting.
If you have a bulging or herniated disc, traction can ease the pressure behind those symptoms for some people, see how we approach herniated disc relief with traction as part of a broader plan. It is not a cure on its own, and a few disc types respond poorly. We sort that out at the evaluation, not by guessing.
Does It Hurt? What a Session Feels Like
Most people find traction relaxing. Some fall asleep on the table.
It should not hurt. You feel a stretch, a gentle pull through the neck or low back. Tension easing, mostly. If you ever feel sharp pain, numbness, or anything shooting down a limb, you tell us and we stop. That rule is not negotiable.
A little soreness afterward is normal, the kind you get the day after a good stretch. Usually gone in a day or two.
Does Traction Therapy Actually Work? An Upfront Answer
Here is where we will be straight with you.
For short-term relief, traction has a solid track record. Patients feel less pressure, less nerve pain, looser muscles. The studies back that up for symptom relief over a span of weeks.
Long term is murkier. A Cochrane review, the kind of analysis that pools dozens of trials, found traction makes little or no measurable difference for low back pain when set against sham or no treatment. That is blunt. Worth knowing, though. It tells you traction is not a cure you lean on by itself, and anyone selling it that way is overselling.
So why use it. Because for the right patient it buys a window. Pressure comes off, pain drops, and that opening lets the rest of the plan work. The spinal adjustment that restores motion. The posture correction that keeps the spine from collapsing back into its old pattern. Traction on its own is a flare-fix. Traction inside a real plan is how you get lasting relief and a spine that stays corrected.
Who Is a Good Candidate, and Who Should Avoid It
Good candidates tend to share a pattern. Pain that radiates from the neck into the arm, or from the back into the leg. Symptoms that ease when you take load off the spine and worsen when you pile it on. That points toward compression, which is exactly what traction addresses.
It is not for everyone. We do not use traction when there is:
- Severe osteoporosis or fragile bone.
- A spinal fracture, recent or still healing.
- Spinal instability, or certain hardware and fusions.
- A spinal tumor, or cancer affecting the spine.
- Uncontrolled high blood pressure.
This is the reason nobody gets put on the Invertrac before an evaluation. Pulling on the wrong spine makes things worse. We rule that out first.
How Traction Fits Our Care Plan
The first visit runs about thirty minutes. It is an evaluation, not a treatment. Dr. Brockway examines you, takes a history, and works out whether your pain is the compression kind that traction actually helps.
No adjustment happens until imaging is reviewed. For adults and older kids, that means we look at the films before any hands or any traction device touch your spine. Need imaging? We refer you out for it. Then we read it.
Once we know what we are working with, traction joins the rest of the plan instead of standing alone. A typical sequence: traction to open the space, a spinal adjustment to restore motion through the segment, then work on the habits and posture that compressed things to begin with. That combination is what produces lasting relief instead of one more temporary reset.
For patients with measurable cervical curve loss, that protocol sometimes extends to fitting for a Denneroll cervical orthotic, a take-home device that reinforces the cervical correction between visits. That device works alongside our cervical curve restoration program to reinforce the correction between visits.
Whiplash from a crash is its own situation. Traction can play a role, but accident care has more moving parts, so that gets handled through our personal injury evaluation.
Traction Therapy FAQ
How long until traction therapy works?
Depends on what is going on, and how long it has been going on. Many people notice a difference within the first several sessions. A full program often runs anywhere from a handful of visits to fifteen or thirty, spread across weeks. Some conditions keep improving for a couple of months as the tissue heals. We track it and adjust as we go.
How often will I need traction?
Usually one to three times a week to start. Sessions are short, ten to twenty minutes of actual traction. As things improve, the visits taper off. We are not interested in keeping you on the table forever.
Can you do traction at home?
Carefully, and not as a substitute. Gentle gravity-based stretches exist, and a doctor can prescribe a home unit in some cases. But medical-grade traction needs supervision, and doing it wrong on the wrong spine can worsen a disc or aggravate a pinched nerve. If neck or back pain is not resolving, get evaluated before you start pulling on your own spine. And stop right away if anything goes numb or shoots down a limb.
How much does traction therapy cost, and does insurance cover it?
It varies. Cost depends on your plan, the treatment, and how many sessions you end up needing. Some insurance covers traction. Some classifies non-surgical decompression as experimental and does not. Rather than quote a number that might not fit your situation, we go over the specifics at your visit. Call the office and we will walk you through it.
Book a Traction Therapy Consultation in Denver
If neck or back pain has been wearing you down, start with the evaluation. We will tell you upfront whether traction fits your case, or whether something else would serve you better.
Glendale Chiropractic
425 S. Cherry St., Suite 307, Denver
Phone: 720-889-1659
Hours: Monday through Thursday, 9:00 AM to 12:30 PM and 2:30 to 6:00 PM. Closed Friday through Sunday.
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Call 720-889-1659 to schedule.