Hey, everybody is Doctor Jo and today I'm going to show you how
to use neck traction to relieve neck pain. So let's get started.
So to start off, what is cervical neck traction? So neck traction is just a treatment that's used,
it can be manually done, it can be mechanically done, it can be used with different pieces
of equipment. And it's just a gentle way of stretching the neck to get pain relief in the neck
to relieve muscle spasms, intention. And so a lot of times what it does, when it gently stretches
is it just opens up those spaces in the cervical spine. And the attraction can be done in different
areas of the body. But today, we're just talking about the neck. So a lot of times if you go into
a physical therapy clinic, they might start off just gently using their hands as a manual way of
traction. There's also big machines, they can put you in and put a certain amount of weight giving
you traction. But it's really just a great way to relieve that pain, especially for things like
pinched nerves. A lot of times if you hear someone having a pinched nerve or that ridiculous apathy,
traction is a great way to open up those joint spaces in the spine to take the pressure often are
also like a herniated disc, or even just stenosis in the cervical spine, which is basically
when those little holes where the nerves come out, start narrowing. So if you open up those spaces,
in theory, it takes pressure off of those nerves, helps increase blood flow, and also helps kind of
just get that movement of those nerves where it might be pinched or compressed. So one of the
ways to do neck traction of these days is at home use. And so there's different kinds of traction.
Sometimes they're over the door, sometimes they're things hanging off the door.
But the folks at SunMy Miami sent me their neck pain Terminator, which is really cool. Because
the reason I like something more like this is you can take it everywhere with you, you don't
have to be next to a door or a wall or something specifically like that. It's nice importable.
And so the really neat thing about this one is if you can see here, it has an S curve.
Or if you turn it around, it has a z curve. And so it's different amounts of strength
tension for it. So the S is a little bit gentler strength, and then the Z is a little bit higher,
more strength on the neck. And I'll kind of tell you a little bit more once I lie down on it.
What I mean by that there are some precautions to cervical traction or attraction in general. So you
always want to make sure you're talking with your doctor, you're talking to your physical therapist,
maybe you've had it done in the clinic to make sure it's safe for you. Because there
are some things like osteoporosis, if you're pregnant, and you have some joint laxity.
If you have some instability, or maybe you've recently had a surgery,
these are things that we may be tractions not quite right for you. So make sure you're getting
cleared by your doctor or your physical therapist to do it. And I always recommend
having it done in the clinic first make sure you've had it done and you feel okay.
And then when it works great for you, you can purchase something like this to really
give you that one up to be able to work on it at home. And again, since it's something like this,
it's portable, you can travel with it, if it's something that's really good for you. So I'm just
going to show you really quickly how to use this one specifically. So we're gonna do the S first.
And so you can see how it kind of curves over this way with S. And what I like with that is
it helps you get that extra traction in there. But it's a gentle way of getting traction. You know,
sometimes you see these machines, and they look kind of scary. But this is just enough, just, you
know, maybe 20 to 30 degrees going over into that extension of traction, which is really all you
need to get it. And then if you turn it this way, you have a little bit more force in there going
kind of into where those muscles connect to the skull. And a lot of times if you're in the clinic,
that's when we'll take our hands and really get that almost like a trigger point on those muscles
to help relax and then so you can turn it that way. And I usually feel a little bit more pressure
right on that muscle area to get that tension and get those spasms out if you have some muscle
spasm. So we'll start with the s. So the best way to do it is keep your knees propped up,
get it right on the curve of your neck there and just kind of gently relax on it. So one of the
benefits of this one is that the material it's made out of is firmer. So even though it's a
little bit firmer, you know, you think sometimes a memory foam where you're squishing right into it,
but the firmness of it is what really helps again, get into those muscles to help relax
those muscles, and then help you get that a little bit of extension over there to help open up with
that traction. So just starting off usually want to start off with about 10 minutes a day.
If you haven't done this before, you might even want to work up to the 10 minutes.
And then once you get going and it feels good, then you can do it one to two times a day. If
you try this and it's nice and relaxing, you can also then kind of bend your arms up over
your head to get some extra nice stretch in there. Because a lot of times with those pinched nerves,
you're going to feel numbness and tingling in your arms. And traction is a great way to help get rid
of some of that tingling, and numbness or at least reduce it for a period of time, I'm going to turn
it this way. So you can see the Z one. So see, I'm going to get a little more pressure again,
right here. But I like it, it's like good pressure. Again, it's like when we take our
fingers and just hit where those muscles go into the skull or the occiput area, that's where we
call it and just putting that little bit more pressure on it to help relax and release those
muscles with traction, which is just like any other treatment plan or therapeutic exercises
and stretches. Sometimes the first time you do it, you feel really good. But most of the time,
this is something you have to do for a period of time, it can take a couple days to a couple
weeks of consistently doing it because if you've been hurting for a long time, it's going to take
that period of time sometimes to start getting it better. So though you might feel better the first
time sometimes you're gonna have to work with it for a little while before you really start getting
better just like those stretches and exercises. They're not always going to work just doing it
one time you really have to, you know, make a plan to do it consistently to really get better.
If you're interested in purchasing the neck pain Terminator, click on the link up there. And if
you're interested in some other stretches and exercises for the neck, click on the playlist
on the link up there. And remember, be safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.