Help for the Back Hang Upside Down?
Sometimes, we have to incorporate several treatment protocols to help with back pain. It was the case with this particular patient. He has been suffering with a bulging disc which had been giving him back pain, numbness and tingling. He had tried various treatments including medical, injections, back pain relieving belts and more and still found himself in pain. A multi treatment protocol including helping the back hang upside down with an inversion table was administered.
After examining him and looking at his medical history, we formulated a treatment plan for him. Normally, we offer short term treatments, but in this case we felt we could help him with a little extra treatment. Despite this, we do not hold any patient to the treatment, it is up to them whether they return to continue their treatment, but as this was working for him, he of course returned.
What treatments did we apply to this patient?
For the majority of patients, chiropractic adjustments are sufficient to reduce pain and help them back to normal. For our patient here, we applied four treatment protocols to help him. They were:
- Chiropractic
- STIM therapy
- Cold laser therapy
- Inversion table
Chiropractic Treatment
For chiropractic, we adjusted him carefully based on his condition. We also put him on our distraction table to gently flex his spine to help decompress the joints.
STIM Therapy
Using a TENS unit, we gave him some relief from his pain by applying small electric currents which help to disrupt the pain signals to the brain. TENs units are great for temporary pain relief to give the patient a break.
Cold Laser Therapy
Using the power of light, cold laser therapy is an excellent way to reduce inflammation and improve healing as well. This non invasive treatment helps to reduce the inflammation in the disc, thus reducing pain and numbness. You can find out more about cold laser therapy here.
Inversion Table
The inversion table is a great tool to provide general traction of the spine. By using gravity, the back hang upside down, a general traction is felt on the back which again helps to decompress the joints.
For bulging back pain, these treatments made great inroads into reducing the patients pain and help treat the problem directly. Medication tends to treat the symptoms rather than the source. PPE equipment like belts, provide support and help give some relief, but they don’t treat the cause either.
Chiropractic, cold laser therapy and an inversion table all worked together to provide the patient with greater relief from pain and actually attacked the cause of the problem. In the video above, Dr Warwick goes through this treatment using the inversion table which uses gravity to help receive the pressure on his discs and allows for them to decompress.
Inversion tables are available for home use too, but it’s always best to get Dr Warwick’s advice for the best use because it is possible you could end up doing more damage than good.
One of the better ways to use inversion tables with back hang upside down for 30 seconds at a time. Also, it may be better to start off by having the table incline on a slight slope at first.
Generally, for the majority of back pain cases, additional treatments aren’t necessary and we can normally get you out of pain with chiropractic and maybe a little cold laser therapy. For more complex conditions such as this patient’s, then we will look at additional treatments which compliment one another to get pain down.
Check out the video and see how we treated the patient and how he got on.
If you feel any of these treatments could help you, contact Dr David Warwick on 360 951 4504 today, walk in or schedule an appointment online now.
