spinal traction
Sometimes a neck or back hurts in a way that feels relieved by gently stretching the spine apart — many people instinctively pull up on their own head or hang from a bar to feel the relief. Spinal traction is the clinical version: a steady or rhythmic pulling force applied along the spine to separate the vertebrae slightly and take pressure off the structures between them.
For the neck (cervical traction), a harness cradles the head and a controlled force pulls upward, sometimes by hand, sometimes by a pulley or a motorised unit, in either a continuous or an on-and-off (intermittent) pattern. For the low back (lumbar traction), the pelvis and trunk are strapped and pulled apart on a special table. The aim is to widen the space between vertebrae, reduce pressure on a compressed nerve root or a bulging disc, and stretch tight tissues. The classic candidate is a pinched nerve in the neck or back causing arm or leg pain (radiculopathy).
Traction is intuitive and can feel good in the moment, but the high-quality evidence that it produces lasting benefit is weak and inconsistent, especially for low back pain. Any disc 'decompression' is temporary and reverses when the pull is released, so it is best understood as short-term symptom relief, not a structural fix. It must be applied carefully and is avoided where pulling could be dangerous — for example in certain unstable spines, some inflammatory or infectious spine conditions, significant osteoporosis, and certain tumours.
A patient with a pinched neck nerve causing arm pain reports that intermittent cervical traction relieves the arm symptoms during and shortly after the session, though the relief fades and the therapist pairs it with active neck exercises.
Any decompression is temporary and reverses when the pull is released.
Despite its intuitive appeal, the evidence that traction gives lasting benefit is weak, especially for low back pain; any disc decompression reverses once the pull stops.