Spinal Decompression: A Noninvasive Alternative to Surgery for Back Pain

JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Dr. Lane Torres

When seven horses at Churchill Downs died in the days leading up to the 149^th Kentucky Derby this year, Deltona veterinarian Dr. Lane Torres was saddened but not surprised. More than 325 thoroughbreds died at tracks in 2022, according to The Jockey Club’s equine injury database. The pace of equine deaths has since improved, but Dr. Torres has a pretty good idea why so many 2- and 3-year-olds continue to perish. “Part of it is because they’re started so young,” she says. “When you start working an animal under that much stress before their joints have fully developed, you’re bound to have issues. It’s the nature of the industry.” Dr. Torres has been around horses since she was a teenager. Her parents owned an Alabama boarding facility, and she worked in an equine hospital for six years before going to veterinary school. After working in equine hospitals in Kentucky and New Mexico, Dr. Torres moved to Florida in 2012. Since then, she has been practicing at Central Florida Equine, a veterinary hospital that she became the owner of a little less than a year ago. Not long after taking ownership of the practice, Dr. Torres found herself in need of human medical care after suffering a painfully disabling back injury while competing in a CrossFit competition in February. “During the part that we refer to as the workout of the day, I went to do a max thruster and felt a sharp pain in my lower back,” Dr. Torre details. During a max thruster, the competitor lifts a barbell with weights overhead and lowers it to the chest while bending the knees. The sudden stab of pain she felt didn’t automatically knock Dr. Torres out of the competition, but it hampered her significantly. To compensate, she abandoned the remaining lifting events and competed in the other events to complete the competition. In the days that followed, though, Dr. Torres’ pain became more bothersome. Soon, she was unable to bend or lift anything weighing more than a few pounds without feeling another stabbing strike in her back. “Everything was uncomfortable,” she laments. “It hurt to tie my shoes. It hurt to ride in a car. It hurt to try and ride a horse. It was even hard for me to find a comfortable position to sleep. “I have a 5-year-old son, and I couldn’t lift him up if I needed to, so it was a very uncomfortable injury that affected almost everything I tried to do. Even at work, it hurt just to lift a horse’s leg to examine it. That was incredibly painful for me.” For a week or two, Dr. Torres tried conventional remedies such as ice, heat, rest and over-the-counter medications. When those failed to alleviate her pain, she visited Dr. Jeremy M. Gordon, DC, at DeLand Chiropractic & Spinal Decompression. “I was already seeing Dr. Gordon for regular chiropractic adjustments,” she explains, “but I knew that he could help me figure out this problem because he does CrossFit, too, and he knows the type of compression my back was under.” As part of his thorough examination, Dr. Gordon ordered an MRI of Dr. Torres’ back. That detailed imaging test revealed the extensive damage done to her back during the max thruster. “I had one bulging disc and another that was torn and also bulging,” Dr. Torres reports. “It was after we received those imaging results that Dr. Gordon immediately recommended I do spinal decompression, which I started a few days later.”

JORDAN PYSZ / iFoundMyDoctor.com
A pain-free Dr. Torres has resumed the weightlifting portion of her CrossFit workouts.

Treatment That Works

Spinal decompression is a drug-free, nonsurgical therapy that can treat protruding or herniated discs, spinal stenosis, degenerative disc disease, neuropathy in the arms or legs, and postsurgical neck or back pain. At DeLand Chiropractic & Spinal Decompression, this advanced pain treatment is delivered through a table device called the DRX9000™ that, according to Dr. Gordon, is unmatched in its ability to alleviate back pain. “If you want the best results for your patients, you need the best equipment,” Dr. Gordon states. “That’s why we utilize the DRX9000 decompression system. It is unequaled in design and clinical results.” A typical treatment session begins with the patient getting comfortable on the DRX9000 table, which creates a gentle decompressive force on the damaged discs. This force reduces pressure on the discs, which helps retract disc material into its natural position, rehydrating the discs and alleviating the pain. The DRX9000 can be used to treat both cervical and lumbar injuries through a program that is typically comprised of 24 appointments across 10 weeks. Each visit lasts about an hour, with the first 10 visits designed to determine the patient’s likely response to the protocol. “We start by treating the patient five days a week for two weeks, and our goal is to see a 50 percent improvement in function and pain in those first 10 visits,” Dr. Gordon explains. “If we see that improvement, we continue with the remaining 14 treatments.” DeLand Chiropractic & Spinal Decompression has charted the results of patients receiving this therapy for more than a decade and determined that its standard course is highly effective. “After tracking hundreds of patients, I am very proud to report that our patient satisfaction rate exceeds 80 percent,” states Dr. Gordon. “That’s a much higher satisfaction rate than invasive surgery.” Decompression sessions are typically followed by cold therapy and/or electrical muscle stimulation to restore proper muscle tone, decrease inflammation and maximize the effects of the treatment.

“An Absolute Miracle”

Dr. Torres began receiving treatment on the DRX9000 in March. For the bulk of the next three months, her treatment was monitored by Michael Munson, DC, who gauged her progress and made the necessary adjustments to ensure she achieved the best possible outcome. “Dr. Munson did an excellent job of paying attention to what I was doing both in treatment and out of treatment because he knew that I was still working out as much as I possibly could to stay in shape for CrossFit,” Dr. Torres explains. “He wanted to make sure I wasn’t doing anything that was going to negatively impact the results of my treatment, so he closely monitored the exercises I was doing outside to make sure that everything worked together cohesively and to my benefit.” And benefit she did. Dr. Torres recently completed the full course of spinal decompression treatments and says she is free of aggravating back pain. As a result, she recently resumed the weightlifting portion of her CrossFit workouts. “I started slowly, doing less weight than I was doing before I suffered the injury because I hadn’t used those muscles in so long, but I am now lifting, working and living pain-free again,” she enthuses. “I am very happy with the results of my spinal decompression treatments. “I’m very fortunate to know Dr. Gordon because these types of injuries are usually repaired surgically, and spinal decompression was a nice alternative to surgery and injections. It was completely noninvasive, and it worked. “And throughout the process, everyone at DeLand Chiropractic & Spinal Decompression did a great job of making sure I was as comfortable as possible because a back in injury is a very uncomfortable thing to have to go through. “The bottom line is, I cannot imagine having a better experience, and I absolutely recommend Dr. Gordon and DeLand Chiropractic & Spinal Decompression for anyone who has a problem like I did.”