What Is VAX-D

The Basics

“VAX-D” stands for “Vertebral Axial Decompression.” It’s a non-invasive spinal decompression treatment for a number of low back disc-related conditions, including: herniated discs, bulging discs, ruptured discs, degenerative disc disease, facet syndrome, and spinal arthritis.

At its simplest, VAX-D is an effective and safe procedure that decompresses, or takes the pressure off, the discs in your lower back and is free from the risks associated with surgery, injections, or anesthesia. Research indicates that time off work or in recovery is minimal, and resolution of symptoms is long lasting.

However, there is a lot more what VAX-D treatments actually do and, in order to understand more fully it, you need to understand  a little about the anatomy of the structures that make up your lower back.

The Spine

The spine is the column of bones that runs down the center of your back. These bones are called “vertebrae,” and there are twenty-four of them. The discs, which give so many people so much trouble, are in-between the vertebrae. Simply put, a disc is a pad that acts as a shock absorber between each of the bones, or vertebrae, of your spine.

The Discs

Discs have a very unique anatomy.

If you understand it, you will also understand why your back hurts in the first place.
The outside wall of each disc is called the “annulus.”

It is made up of cartilage and, like the cartilage at the end of your nose, it is quite firm.

The inside of the disc, however, is quite soft. It’s called the “nucleus pulposus.” It’s made up of a soft, jell-like substance.

You’ll get the basic idea of a disc if you think of a jelly donut, or even a fried egg: firm on the outside, but soft and gooey on the inside.


The unique anatomy of the discs makes them terrific shock absorbers but, it also makes them uniquely vulnerable to injury.

Tears, Bulges, Herniations and Ruptures

Little injuries or tears can weaken the outer wall of the disc allowing it to bulge out. Because the back of the disc actually has lots of nerves in it (called the “sinu-vertebral nerves”), this bulge can cause you lots of pain, and it frequently leads to severe muscle spasms and gripping back pain.

At other times, particularly if you have a traumatic injury, the disc tears suddenly and deeply. Think about what happens to a fried egg when you use your fork to break through the white part into the yolk. This is similar to what occurs if you tear the outer part of the disc or annulus.

If this tear goes all the way through the annulus, then the jell-like nucleus can actually ooze out. This is called a “herniation” or a “prolapse.” Some people call it a “ruptured disc.” When this occurs, the jell-like nucleus pulposis can actually end up putting pressure on the spinal chord or on the major nerve going down the leg, called the “sciatic” nerve. And, when this occurs, pain can radiate down into your buttocks and legs. You might also experience numbness, tingling, and weakness in your legs.

Normal Disc	Budging Disc	Herniated Disc

There are many ways that the disc can get injured, but once the nucleus pulposis oozes out, or dries up, the disc often flattens out and loses its ability to be a good shock absorber. When this happens, the joints at the back of your spine, called “facets,” can become jammed and inflamed, and this often causes constant achy-ness and stiffness. This is referred to as disc degeneration and frequently becomes arthritis of the spine.

Why Discs Don't Heal

There is another interesting fact about discs. Once you are about twenty-five years old, your discs no longer have a blood supply. The vertebrae of your spine do. In fact, almost all the bones in our body are nourished by a network of arteries and capillaries. That’s why our bones heal when we break them. However, there is no similar source of nutrients for adult discs. It is this lack of a blood or nutrient supply that makes it so difficult for injured discs to heal. Quite simply, after age twenty-five, it is very difficult for the nutrients and cells necessary for healing to get to the injured disc. So, unlike your bones, a disc will not heal on its own.

Surgery or VAX-D?

Prior to the invention of VAX-D, the only documented way to actually correct a disc herniation or a disc bulge was surgery, and, no question about it, many people have been helped by surgery.

However, there are many disc conditions for which there is no appropriate surgical procedure and, even when surgery is indicated, it doesn’t always help. Sometimes the correction doesn’t last, and sometimes there are unwanted side effects from the surgery itself. The bottom line is: hardly anyone would choose surgery if there was another option.

The VAX-D Difference

With VAX-D, it is actually possible to correct disc herniations and bulges without surgery. It’s even possible to reverse disc deterioration, again without surgery.

A treatment begins with a VAX-D technician fitting you with a lumbar belt. Then you lie down on the VAX-D table and take hold of the handle at the head of the table. The technician attaches a strap from the lumbar belt to the foot of the table.

The technician then moves over to the computer console, which controls the operation of the table. S/he selects the correct settings for you and begins the VAX-D treatments.

How A VAX-D Treatment Works

During a treatment, the bottom half of the VAX-D table gently glides apart from the top half. Because the lumbar belt you are wearing is attached at the bottom, you will feel a strong but painless force pull on your lower spine. This is the decompression part of the treatment, and it dramatically reduces the pressure inside the center of your injured disc. After sixty seconds, the lower half of the table glides back home again. This allows your lower back to relax for sixty seconds. Then the lower half glides away again and, after another sixty seconds of decompression, it returns home for another sixty seconds of relaxation. These alternating cycles of decompression and relaxation continue for thirty minutes.

Why A VAX-D Treatment Works

The key to the success of VAX-D treatments, and what makes VAX-D altogether different from traction, other alleged spinal decompression tables, or the flexion/distraction treatments done by physical therapists and chiropractors, is the extraordinarily low pressures that get created within the injured disc. Normally, even when you are lying down and resting, the pressure within each one of your discs is between 25mm and 75mm of mercury. (“mm,” or millimeters of mercury is simply the way scientists measure the amount of pressure inside the discs).

However, during VAX-D treatments the pressure within your discs goes down to as low as negative 150mm of mercury. This is very low, traction and flexion/distraction cannot achieve it, and it’s important because it is what allows the magic of VAX-D to take place.

Remember, while there are veins and arteries in the vertebrae around your discs, there is no blood getting from them into the discs. However, the extremely low, negative pressure created within the disc during a VAX-D treatment works like a vacuum, and that vacuum does two things. First, usually, the bulging or herniated material is pulled back in. Second, just as importantly and at the same time, nutrients, fluids, and cells are sucked into the disc from the blood supply in the surrounding vertebrae. This is vital to the healing process, and it’s actually what makes VAX-D such a clinical breakthrough. The disc is nourished, the bulge or herniation reduced, the annulus heals, and you, the patient, are no longer in pain.

Note the remarkable difference in the two MRI images below which demonstrate the effect of lowering intradiscal pressure on a disc herniation.

 

Before VAX-D	After VAX-D

“No longer in pain.” That’s what over 80% of the patients who have undergone VAX-D treatments in our clinic say. They also say things like, “I feel great,” “VAX-D comes as close to an understandable miracle as anything I have experienced,” “VAX-D really seems to be magic for me. It has definitely helped, a lot,” and “After the first treatment it was like, RELIEF, and I knew this was it; this was most definitely IT. It was like a miracle to me.” VAX-D has helped thousands of people live lives free from low back pain. There’s a good chance you could be of them.