Disclaimer alert! Disclaimer alert! Hey everybody, it's
Doctor Jo. And today I'm going to talk about the benefits of
cervical traction. So let's get started. cervical traction can
be very beneficial for things like neck pain, spondylosis, or
cervical arthritis or herniated disc. But always check in with
your doctor to make sure that cervical traction is okay for
you. Because sometimes, it might be something that you shouldn't
do. But it's a great way to be able to decompress or open up
the spaces in your spine, especially in the neck area. So
if you have something like a pinched nerve, or again, like a
herniated disc, it can really open up those spaces and take
the pressure off of it. Also a great thing with cervical
traction is there are a lot of pieces of equipment that you can
use at home, after maybe you've tried it in a clinic and found
that it's helpful for you and that you are supposed to be
using it. So Rest Cloud neck stretcher is going to be what
I'm going to kind of use today to show you some cervical neck
traction. I really like these kinds of things because one,
it's super portable, it's lightweight, so you can take it
with you. You can kind of use it everywhere. If you use a machine
in a clinic, you know, sometimes they're big and bulky. And so
this is a great way to get that same kind of cervical traction
without big pieces of equipment. So the nice thing about the Rest
Cloud is you can see here that it has this "C" shape or "C"
curve to help get in that "C" curve of your cervical spine.
You can use it two ways. There's a concave, cave going in, and a
convex. And so one is a little more pressure than the other. So
a lot of times you want to start off with the lightest pressure,
just to make sure that you're doing it correctly, not getting
as much pressure. So it might not be so sore. Because a lot of
times when you do cervical traction for the first time, you
might get a little sore because your neck muscles are probably
tight, and maybe even a little weak. And so when you're doing
something like putting pressure to it and opening up those
spaces, if you haven't been doing it a lot before, you might
be a little sore the first time, but it should never be painful.
So if it's painful, make sure you're stopping. So again,
what's really cool about this is you can use it on a bed, a couch
or the floor. Sometimes a little firmer surface is better. But if
you can't get down on the floor, you can do it on your bed if
your bed's not super squishy. So this way, having this part where
your head is supported is the one that's a little bit less
pressure. And then so this way, then it's going a little bit
more into that extension to get that curve and opening up the
spaces. So I would always recommend, again, the lightest
way first. And you can see these little knobs here that give you
that little bit of extra pressure on some of those
pressure points and your muscles in the back there to help kind
of release those. So the best way to do it is when you lie
down, have your knees up bit up, and that just kind of takes
pressure off your lower spine as well. So you're just going to
kind of lie down, you want that curve to go right into the curve
of your neck. But my chin is in a neutral position, my forehead
shouldn't go further down. So you don't want a big huge curve,
you just want it taking that pressure off of it. So knees
propped up. If you feel very comfortable with this, you can
bring your arms up into a stop sign position. This just kind of
helps open everything up a little bit more, especially if
you have something like a pinched nerve, you might feel it
going down into your arms in your fingers a little bit. A
little bit is okay, but if it's a lot or really uncomfortable,
just go ahead and bring the arms back down. You can rest them on
your stomach or on the side. But really try and relax your neck
and just let the pressure points kind of push into there to relax
everything and open up those spaces. A lot of times with
cervical traction, you don't really want to go for long
periods of time. This particular one recommends just doing 10
minutes at a time. I would maybe if you haven't done it before at
home, start off with even a little bit less than that. So
this is not a pillow that you would sleep on at night or take
naps on. Again, really 10 minutes is the most that you
want to do. Because again, if your neck is already hurting,
you don't want to have so much of that pressure and opening up
where you kind of over stimulate the area. So those were the
benefits of cervical traction. If you're interested in
purchasing the Rest Cloud, click on the link up there. And don't
forget to subscribe by clicking down there. And remember, be
safe, have fun, and I hope you feel better soon.