Spinal decompression therapy offers noninvasive treatment for back pain relief

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Injury, age and poor posture can all contribute to herniated or bulging discs, which is a common cause of upper and lower back pain.

Treatments range from pain management to surgery, but some chiropractors are getting long lasting results with a new twist on a traditional therapy.

Acute back pain made 24-year-old Angus Wong of Irvine feel much older than he was.

"Sometimes at night when I'm asleep, I'll just wake up and it's like my own lower back attacking me. I was getting really tired of it because it hurt," Wong said.

Weightlifting and extreme sports led to a bulging disc that was pressing on Wong's nerves, resulting in radiating pain.

"He showed me these X-rays compared to a normal spine and wow! I didn't realize that my discs were out of place like this," he said.

"The disc is like a tire. So if you're speeding all the time and you're ripping around corners, that's going to wear out faster," said Dr. Jerome Melad, a chiropractor with Lee Chiropractic.

When pain management, physical rehab and steroid injections stop working, many patients turn to surgery.

But Melad said many of his patients avoid surgery with spinal decompression therapy. It's a modern twist on traditional traction. Patients are strapped to a table that stretches their spine, but what is different is that the software custom calculates the pressure and a pattern for releasing tension.

"With spinal decompression therapy, that traction or that pulling force is actually modulated. So it pulls to a certain amount and then it relaxes. What we're trying to do is we're trying to mimic the motion that the disk needs to hydrate itself. So it's pumping the disk in essence," he said.

While many orthopedic surgeons regard conventional traction as a temporary form of pain relief, Melad said for some of his patients, results have been long lasting, and it's a non-invasive way to heal naturally.

"You're creating what we call a vacuum or suction effect here, and it's going to draw fluid and protein back into that disc," said Melad.

Patients often require 12 to 24 treatments, running about $95 per session. For Angus, it was exactly what he needed.

"I can do the things I love now. Like I love playing basketball. I love lifting weights. And I can do that pretty much pain free," Wong said.

The treatment is not covered by insurance. Spinal decompression therapy is not recommended for patients with fused spines or bone loss.