Yes, Peggy, this is VAX-D.  It stands for Vertebral Axial Decompression.  Whie it looks it’s a bit uncomfortable, a lot of folks with back pain say it gives them a lot of relief…Kurt Hoellein wondered if he would ever get back to working out.  Three years ago when he was just 24, he injured himself lifting a box while on a job.  He knew instantly something was wrong.

…and I twisted as I was lifting it and I felt something tearing and actually it was very painful.

Pain medicines, chiropractic treatments, even surgery to remove a disc – none of them helped get rid of the pain in the long run.

I would feel it when I woke up, when I went to sleep, when I walked around during a day…it was…the pain was always there.

… and what’s this?

A motorized traction table for stretching the spine.  Some patients call it ‘ the rack’…

Remember that scene from ‘Thunderbolt’ … where James Bond is stuck on … the rack?  Well, take away the sinister spies and you almost have what hass finally given patients like Kurt and Bob Morrison here … relief”.

As soon as the table starts to pull you just have the pain, just instantly goes away…

This is VAX-D. It’s a table of modern day rack, if you will, that gently stretches on the lower spine pulling on the pelvis, while the patient holds on onto these grips. The thinking is that by pulling a part of a vertebrae it relives the pressure on an intervertebral discs, the shock absorbers of the back.

Just picture yourself hanging just hanging on a tree or a chin-up bar, and someone, maybe like your kid, a 60-70 pound kid, holding onto your waist and pulling down.  That’s what it feels like.  There is no pain”.

… It takes 60 seconds for us to achieve what we want to achieve.  And then the table will release and the patient rests for one minute.”

And then the cycle repeats 15 times over a 30-minute period.  A normal treatment course lasts 20 sessions.  It’s felt VAX-D not only strengthens ligaments around the disc, it also creates such a negative pressure inside the disc that herniations and buldges get sucked in.”

The criss-crossing fibers of the disc that make up the walls of the disc called  annulus… they are actually being stretched and they are actually being tighten up almost as if you are tightening up shoestrings”.

Dr. Miskovich says that makes the walls of the disc stronger, and he says that disc may even gain height, which is a good thing.  Studies have shown a 70% success rate in relieving chronicle back pain, including pain caused by herniated discs.  That’s what Kurt had, and once he started getting VAX-D treatments he noticed significant change almost immediately.”

“I walked in hunched in.  I could not actually put one foot in front of the other.  I was actually hobbling, and I guess, after about a week and a half I was upright and able to move around”.

… Thank God!  You could have been killed…

…And unlike James Bond, you can see Kurt is now completely pain free.  You think it was because of this? ”.

I know it was because of this.

Now, VAX-D is only for low back pain.  It is not for, for example, neck pain.  It doesn’t have any significant complications associated with it except for, perhaps, the cost.  It does run between 4 to 6 thousand dollars per full course of treatment.  However, a lot of insurance policies including workmen’s comp will pay for it.  For more information you can log onto our web site at RealPittsburgh.com or VAXD.ORG.