I received the following comment recently:
“spinal decompression = snake oil” – along with some other rather unsavory words which I will not re-post here.
My first instinct was to just delete the comment, but after some consideration I felt that some of my readers may also have similar concerns – concerns such as “this sounds too good to be true”.
The following is my e-mail response to the commenter:
I can understand your skepticism – I’ve been there.
I have been a chiropractor for 13 years and have been closely involved with the profession for over 20 years. I have known for a long time that spinal discs require 1-2 years to heal under ALL circumstances. This is because the disc does not have a direct blood supply – the disc receives its vital oxygen and nutrients ONLY through fluid imbibition caused by healthy, complete and regular joint motion.
Therefore, when I first heard about spinal decompression about 5 years ago I also called foul. If the disc takes 1-2 years to heal then how can spinal decompression improve the same condition in just a matter of weeks? Then over the course of a couple years I had about 3 patients that I thought needed back surgery, but couldn’t get it because of health problems. One was about 150 pounds overweight, one suffered from advanced diabetes and the other was elderly and had a heart condition. No surgeon would touch these patients because of the risks. Desperate to offer them something other than a lifetime of addictive and possibly dangerous pain medication I suggested spinal decompression. I downplayed the likelihood of success because of my skepticism.
All three underwent the treatment at an office near us using the Vax-D (the very first spinal decompression machine invented – antiquated by today’s standards). Two did amazingly well with the treatment. The third was doing well, but had to stop (the elderly patient) because of shoulder problems. The Vax-D has the patient holding onto handles throughout the treatment which caused shoulder issues for some patients. None of the newer tables have this problem.
I wasn’t completely convinced at that time, but I was duly impressed.
I later learned that spinal decompression doesn’t ‘heal’ the disc in 6-8 weeks. What it does is change the shape of the disc which removes pressure and eliminates pain during that 6-8 week period of time. This re-establishes proper oxygen and nutrient transport into the disc which then ALLOWS the disc move in the direction of healing over the next 1-2 years. Without this disc shape correction only a small percentage of these disc problems would heal on their own.
We continued to research it for awhile longer. Eventually, the published research was strong enough that we leased our first machine in 2006. Our very first patient was one of the doctors in our office. He was struck by a car as a pedestrian when he was in chiropractic school. His face was de-gloved and his jaw was wired shut for almost 3 months. As a results of that accident he also had a 7mm herniated disc and another 8 mm herniated disc in his low back. We were able to manage his pain with chiropractic and focused a great deal on his fitness which helped him. However, he still suffered pain daily and had severe episodes of low back pain and leg pain about once every 2-4 months that would last 1-2 weeks. Long story short he did great with spinal decompression (and we were just learning about how to do the treatment back then!). We also did a repeat MRI about 9 months after he completed treatment and both discs retracted over 50%. To this day his symptoms are reduced 99%. He can even do several hour drives with no problem when that used to cause severe pain in the past every time he did it.
Since then we now have 5 total machines – we have 2 cervical spine DRX9000 units and 3 lumbar spine DRX9000 units. We have treated well over 400 patients over the last 3 years. Many of those patients (perhaps as much as half) were told by at least one surgeon that surgery was their ONLY option. Only TWO of our patients have ever required surgery after undergoing treatment in our office and nearly every patient we have treated (approximately 85%) have reported experiencing at least 80% reduction in symptoms. AND the results appear to be long lasting. We have had less than a dozen patients indicate to us that their symptoms have returned and, even then, it was usually corrected with either a handful of spinal decompression or chiropractic treatments. The results have been mind-blowing for us to experience. It makes showing up for work a VERY fun and exciting experience. We don’t make the surgeons very happy, but our patients are absolutely thrilled.
You mentioned research in your comment. Here is a link to our website with about 6 published references (the fulltext of the studies can be downloaded there as PDF files). Here is the link:
http://orangecountydiscdecompression.com/spinal_decompression_research.htm
Also, patient satisfaction is probably even more important than studies for most people. Here is a link to testimonials from actual patients in our office. We have so many testimonials we stopped adding them to our website more than a year ago.
http://ocspinaldecompression.com/testimonials.htm
I hope this helps you to see the problem from our perspective. Compared with spinal surgery Spinal Decompression has ZERO risk and a rather high success rate. I believe strongly in the promise of “First, do no harm.” Spinal decompression lives up to that promise even in patients where it does not prove successful which, luckily, is rare.
You also mentioned money in your comment. Is spinal decompression a lucrative practice? The answer to that question is yes and no. The machines are expensive. In fact, I spend more per month on the equipment leases than I do on our office lease! Therefore, you need to help a significant number of patients before you even break even. This does not include the staffing and space necessary to treat spinal decompression patients. We have a Doctor of Physical Therapy in our office, two Physical Therapy Assistants and two Physical Therapy Technicians. Also, the machines require a lot of space to house them. This means greater expense relative to our office lease. In other words, an office that truly delivers results for its patients will do well financially. An office that does not deliver results will end up bankrupt very quickly. Luckily, we do well and receive MANY referrals from happy patients.
Last question: Do I personally do well financially? I like to think so, but I would need to treat about 20-30 spinal decompression patients just to equal the same profitability that a spinal surgeon will make on just ONE surgical patient. If I were doing it for the money I would have become a spine surgeon, but I wouldn’t change places with a surgeon for ANY amount of money! I love what I do and I can sleep well at night knowing that I am providing for my family while dramatically improving the quality of life for my patients.
Please feel free to respond back with any other questions or concerns that you may have. Spinal decompression is not for everyone, but it is a viable and effective treatment for patients that are properly screened for the procedure.
Yours in Health,
Kenneth D. Erickson, D.C.
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Spinal Decompression = Snake Oil by a Former Spinal Decompresion Skeptic
My first instinct was to just delete the comment, but after some consideration I felt that some of my readers may also have similar concerns – concerns such as “this sounds too good to be true”.
The following is my e-mail response to the commenter:
I can understand your skepticism – I’ve been there.
I have been a chiropractor for 13 years and have been closely involved with the profession for over 20 years. I have known for a long time that spinal discs require 1-2 years to heal under ALL circumstances. This is because the disc does not have a direct blood supply – the disc receives its vital oxygen and nutrients ONLY through fluid imbibition caused by healthy, complete and regular joint motion.
Therefore, when I first heard about spinal decompression about 5 years ago I also called foul. If the disc takes 1-2 years to heal then how can spinal decompression improve the same condition in just a matter of weeks? Then over the course of a couple years I had about 3 patients that I thought needed back surgery, but couldn’t get it because of health problems. One was about 150 pounds overweight, one suffered from advanced diabetes and the other was elderly and had a heart condition. No surgeon would touch these patients because of the risks. Desperate to offer them something other than a lifetime of addictive and possibly dangerous pain medication I suggested spinal decompression. I downplayed the likelihood of success because of my skepticism.
All three underwent the treatment at an office near us using the Vax-D (the very first spinal decompression machine invented – antiquated by today’s standards). Two did amazingly well with the treatment. The third was doing well, but had to stop (the elderly patient) because of shoulder problems. The Vax-D has the patient holding onto handles throughout the treatment which caused shoulder issues for some patients. None of the newer tables have this problem.
I wasn’t completely convinced at that time, but I was duly impressed.
I later learned that spinal decompression doesn’t ‘heal’ the disc in 6-8 weeks. What it does is change the shape of the disc which removes pressure and eliminates pain during that 6-8 week period of time. This re-establishes proper oxygen and nutrient transport into the disc which then ALLOWS the disc move in the direction of healing over the next 1-2 years. Without this disc shape correction only a small percentage of these disc problems would heal on their own.
We continued to research it for awhile longer. Eventually, the published research was strong enough that we leased our first machine in 2006. Our very first patient was one of the doctors in our office. He was struck by a car as a pedestrian when he was in chiropractic school. His face was de-gloved and his jaw was wired shut for almost 3 months. As a results of that accident he also had a 7mm herniated disc and another 8 mm herniated disc in his low back. We were able to manage his pain with chiropractic and focused a great deal on his fitness which helped him. However, he still suffered pain daily and had severe episodes of low back pain and leg pain about once every 2-4 months that would last 1-2 weeks. Long story short he did great with spinal decompression (and we were just learning about how to do the treatment back then!). We also did a repeat MRI about 9 months after he completed treatment and both discs retracted over 50%. To this day his symptoms are reduced 99%. He can even do several hour drives with no problem when that used to cause severe pain in the past every time he did it.
Since then we now have 5 total machines – we have 2 cervical spine DRX9000 units and 3 lumbar spine DRX9000 units. We have treated well over 400 patients over the last 3 years. Many of those patients (perhaps as much as half) were told by at least one surgeon that surgery was their ONLY option. Only TWO of our patients have ever required surgery after undergoing treatment in our office and nearly every patient we have treated (approximately 85%) have reported experiencing at least 80% reduction in symptoms. AND the results appear to be long lasting. We have had less than a dozen patients indicate to us that their symptoms have returned and, even then, it was usually corrected with either a handful of spinal decompression or chiropractic treatments. The results have been mind-blowing for us to experience. It makes showing up for work a VERY fun and exciting experience. We don’t make the surgeons very happy, but our patients are absolutely thrilled.
You mentioned research in your comment. Here is a link to our website with about 6 published references (the fulltext of the studies can be downloaded there as PDF files). Here is the link:
http://orangecountydiscdecompression.com/spinal_decompression_research.htm
Also, patient satisfaction is probably even more important than studies for most people. Here is a link to testimonials from actual patients in our office. We have so many testimonials we stopped adding them to our website more than a year ago.
http://ocspinaldecompression.com/testimonials.htm
I hope this helps you to see the problem from our perspective. Compared with spinal surgery Spinal Decompression has ZERO risk and a rather high success rate. I believe strongly in the promise of “First, do no harm.” Spinal decompression lives up to that promise even in patients where it does not prove successful which, luckily, is rare.
You also mentioned money in your comment. Is spinal decompression a lucrative practice? The answer to that question is yes and no. The machines are expensive. In fact, I spend more per month on the equipment leases than I do on our office lease! Therefore, you need to help a significant number of patients before you even break even. This does not include the staffing and space necessary to treat spinal decompression patients. We have a Doctor of Physical Therapy in our office, two Physical Therapy Assistants and two Physical Therapy Technicians. Also, the machines require a lot of space to house them. This means greater expense relative to our office lease. In other words, an office that truly delivers results for its patients will do well financially. An office that does not deliver results will end up bankrupt very quickly. Luckily, we do well and receive MANY referrals from happy patients.
Last question: Do I personally do well financially? I like to think so, but I would need to treat about 20-30 spinal decompression patients just to equal the same profitability that a spinal surgeon will make on just ONE surgical patient. If I were doing it for the money I would have become a spine surgeon, but I wouldn’t change places with a surgeon for ANY amount of money! I love what I do and I can sleep well at night knowing that I am providing for my family while dramatically improving the quality of life for my patients.
Please feel free to respond back with any other questions or concerns that you may have. Spinal decompression is not for everyone, but it is a viable and effective treatment for patients that are properly screened for the procedure.
Yours in Health,
Kenneth D. Erickson, D.C.
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