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Quiz time. This device is:
A) An alternative to a life jacket which guarantees the wearer will not drown by keeper their head above water
B) A more accurate blood pressure machine which measures the carotid artery
C) A more pain-free method to beauty in some African cultures
D) A cervical traction device that claims to relax tight muscles, and relieves joint and nerve pressure
E) I bet Bridget is awesome at the game Balderdash
And the correct answer…… D! It’s a neck traction device sold from the website Taylor gifts. (And E, I am really good at Balderdash).
The website states: “Say goodbye to neck pain by releasing neck pressure caused by pinched nerves, tension headaches, and osteoarthritis. Wrap the comfortable inflatable cushioning around your neck and inflate or deflate to the desired pressure with the attached easy to use hand pump. The stretching action gently relaxes tight muscles, and relieves joint and nerve pressure. If you have pre-existing conditions consult a medical professional before using this device.”
Hmmm, this thing’s only pro is it doesn’t look as much like a noose as other home cervical traction devices. (*The bones of the neck are referred to as the cervical spine so the terms neck traction and cervical traction are the same.)
Why do people need cervical traction? Not from having a “heavy head” as geekologie says the device is used for. Our bodies are fully capable of holding our heads up, thank you very much. But what about if your head was slouched forward, as so many of us constantly are doing with our poor posture? Think back to physics…
(Left) This is your body, (right) this is your body with a forward head posture
When the head is held forward it moves the center of mass of the head forward creating a torque. For those of you who have just said “huh?” the concept of torque is best explained with a hammer. Why do you hold a hammer at the end of the handle instead of the head of it? By having a longer lever arm it more effectively uses the force you apply to pull the hammer down to hit the nail. So, by holding our heads forward we actually cause more strain on our neck than just the weight of our head. This can cause the muscles in the back of your neck to do more work constantly than if your head was in proper alignment. These muscles then may feel pain and fatigue from being overused in this way. Also, because some of the muscles attach to the base of the skull, they may be involved in causing cervical headaches and an overall muscle imbalance between the muscles that bend the neck.
See how the muscles of the back of the neck attach to the base of the skull and the shoulder (that white line thingy on the left is the spine of the scapula while the right side shows the medial border of the scapula)
Having a forward head posture can even affect the posture of your shoulders, as you can see how many of the muscles are connected to the scapula. Also, look at this:
The cervical spine, note the nerves in yellow coming out of the foramina
Picture this cervical spine with a forward head posture. Those nerves would get squished wouldn’t they? This would affect each of those nerves causing pain or numbness and tingling anywhere from your neck to your fingers based on nerve root compression. This is known as cervical radiculopathy.
Cervical radiculopathy: This shows a better picture of the cervical nerves and where may be affected depending on which nerve is involved.
Also, wouldn’t a forward head posture apply more pressure to the joints of the spine? (That’s the posterior zygopophyseal joint and posterior aspect of the intervertebral disc, for nerds like me). That is how a forward head posture can cause increased pressure to the discs of the cervical spine which can speed up their degeneration. Oh and don’t even get me started on what it can do to your jaw (aka TMJ-temporomandibular joint).
You might be asking yourself, “Bridget, I have a forward head posture, what do I do!?!??! Should I get that blue pump thingy??!?!?!”
Cervical traction has been found to be effective in treating symptoms of, pain, limits in range of motion of the neck and of cervical radiculopathy. People have found relief in using home traction devices as is seen from the comments on this one’s Amazon page. Several studies for home devices show good results, even one published in the American Journal of Physical Medicine. However, I am a little hesitant of them because 1) They look like you could hang yourself on it 2) Do these devices come with a protocol on their use? The AJPM study involved giving each patient a home program and demonstrating it’s use, not people just buying it from a catalog and figuring it out themselves. 3) They are only treating a part of the problem, whether it be by stretching the muscles causing cervical headaches, relieving pressure on the nerves or compression of the vertebrae. A program solely of this home traction ignores other aspects of the problems like correcting poor posture and stretching to increase range of motion. For neck pain a physical therapist would look at the whole picture and give exercises to help improve head posture, self stretches to increase range of motion and may look at the problems are affecting the shoulder as well.
A home cervical traction device
Physical therapists use their hands to manually perform cervical traction. You might be thinking “Woah, how do you do that?” See for yourself:
Performing manual cervical traction
In my opinion by performing cervical traction manually it more effectively stretches the muscles which may be causing cervical headaches and neckpain and relieves pressure from the cervical spine because the motion is applied to the base of the skull. Although I have never used a home cervical traction device, it looks to me that the motion is coming through the…. jaw?
Regarding more about physical therapy and neck pain, see these websites like WebMD and Cleveland Clinic.
The efficacy of plush kitties on neck pain has need been researched