I know that EC or MR would know a lot about this, but anybody else who knows help would be appreciated.
My dad has an L4/L5 disk herniation and found this IDD disc compression therapy. Has anybody used this or know anything about it? Supposedly decompresses the disk and creates a vacuum to allow healthy fluids back in. Is this similar to the way a reverse hyper is supposed to rehabilitate a bad back?
Thanks for anyone with advice.
I read both books by Dr. Stuart McGill, the spinal doctor featured on this site, and I believe it was his opinion that compression therapy was not proven to be an effective for rehabilitating spinal injury. In fact, if I remember correctly, you supposedly run the risk of further destabalization of the spine. I believe that the proceedure helps to eleviate pain, but does nothing to help correct the underlying issues.
If you have back trouble I would strongly recommend buying both of Dr. McGill’s books. They are geared toward clinical therapists, but the information is excellent. If you search T-Nation there is an article on Dr. McGill.
I’m not sure of IDD, but I have heard of people using Cox distraction with pretty good results. Basically, the machine creates a negative pressure, effectively “sucking” the disc contents back in. I’m not sure how scientifically backed it is, but I do know of a few people who have had good results.
Perhaps Dr. Ryan can give you more insight?
BTW, I second the reading of McGill’s stuff; his knowledge is truly amazing.
Stay strong
MR