326- The Future of Functional Spinal Traction with Meditrac

Welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor where each week we deliver the latest chiropractic research and marketing strategies all in the time it takes to get to your office. Now, here's your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid.

Hello and welcome to the Evidence Based Chiropractor. I AM your host, Dr. Jeff Langmaid. Today's episode is a fantastic one. I had the opportunity to sit down with orthopedic surgeon and founder Dr. Grober and Dr. Steve Horwitz and we talked about traction on the move. Historically, traction has been done statically and it doesn't involve any motion, it just doesn't make sense. However, the Meta Track device provides traction on the move dynamic traction. I have seen nothing like it in the marketplace and I think a lot of you out there are going to.

Love the conversation we have.

And I'm going to encourage you also to click on the link in the show notes. Check out what meditrack has going on. They have a super, super unique technology that's just really being brought here stateside. So without further ado, here's a conversation that I had recently with Dr. Grober and Dr. Horowitz.

Hey docs. As promised, I had the fortunate opportunity to sit down with two fantastic physicians on opposite ends of the world. One is Dr. Grober, orthopedic surgeon and entrepreneur who is connecting with us from Israel. The other, Dr. Horowitz, Olympic chiropractor, fitness expert, fantastic doc based here in the States. And we're going to talk about a piece of technology that if you're listening and watching, you might have not heard of in the past. But this is going to be something you want to keep your eye on in the future. I have been incredibly impressed by what Dr. Grober has been able to bring to the market and the benefits it can provide patients. The company is called Meta Track and let's start right there. Dr. Grober, what is Meditrak and how did you get started with this proxy.

Advancement over the years was known as one of the oldest modalities with poor results and not effective due to several reasons. Meditrac founder, our late Dr. Stabels and myself as an active orthopedic surgeon from Israel, we found out that the reason for poor result were bad techniques and not efficiency traction forces during the loading treatment. Due to the fact that all the traction devices treat the patient in a supreme position and could not product traction forces which is at least 50% of the patient body weight. Meditrac developed years ago the Verte truck which is a portable active spine device with 3D image fraction forces simultaneously and the treatment is performed while the patient is in motion.

That is a key component of this. When I first came upon the devices, I had never seen what I'll call functional traction, meaning items that allowed people movement while providing that distractive force. Dr. Horowitz, I know you've used this with success with a lot of patients in your practice. What are some of those common conditions that you see patients walking in with where the meditrack devices really help them get those benefits and return on quality of life?

The lumbar disc herniations, disc protrusions really made a big difference. And I think Dr. Grover hit it on the head when he's talking about being able to be ambulatory. That was always a big bugaboo for me, especially coming from the competitive lifting standpoint and training athletes. And my practice really dovetailing that injury care and performance enhancement. And that's a monstrous difference that it's so easy to apply it to the patient. It's quick and it just makes sense when the patient puts it on. It's very, very gentle. And that's something that I really emphasize to people. You may not feel a whole lot going on in any one treatment, but as you progress through the treatment protocol, you're going to feel a massive difference as you use it day by day and every other day, etc. It's fantastic.

I love to hear that because one of the unique benefits that I saw was the ability to move around, as you said, as somebody who's been invol involved in high level sports, as somebody yourself personally with lifting, with many other high level athletes. We all know that there's such benefit to movement in the healing process. Yet traditionally we see a lot of devices that limit motion. So what are some of those benefits around what's referred to as traction on the move? I'll call functional traction. How does that really benefit the patient?

Any form of active rehabilitation such as walking or walking on a treadmill or using elastic bands to move part of the body during treatment. Improve blood flow with oxygen to the nerve damage after long pressure, which accelerates improvement of clinical symptoms. There is also a positive psychologic effect on any patient who suffers from back and neck disorder.

The movement aspect of it is critical. And Dr. Horowitz, I know you see patients each and every day that are finding the benefits of movement based traction, functional traction, as opposed to that traditional static traction. How would you define the differences when you look at your own practice in Your practice with your patients. How do you see those benefits manifesting with people when they're actually able to move yet still get those decompressive forces?

I think one of the first things is the expression on their face when they see, oh, I don't have to lie supine, lie on my back on a device and just sit there like, oh, wow, I get to move. So whether it be on a treadmill or even better out in the sun outside, if you take it home with you, it's just wonderful to be able to move while you're getting that traction, that decompression force on your body, on the iliac crest and on the lower ribs as it separates and as you're able to move, it feels really different. I had personally experienced the supine devices for many years and they just never really work for me. Now I'm just an n equals 1. So you have to take that as an n equals 1. But as soon as I started to read about the Vertatrak, I said, I really need to try this. And unfortunately I didn't try it sooner. I wish I had purchased it five years before I even got it.

I can understand that. I'm going to come back to you with a follow up question on that, Dr. Horowitz and patients, I know you and I as conservative care providers, we see individuals and we're delivering adjustments, we're doing lifestyle modification and thankfully many of our patients get well with our core modalities. But there's always this tricky percentage, right, that just don't seem to be able to get over the hump. So how have you seen in practice that the Meditrax suite of devices help these individuals, that maybe they have cervical discurrent issues, herniations, protrusions, whatever it might be, perhaps they have lumbar issues with and or without radiculopathy and they just really haven't responded to the core care of the hands on manual care that you deliver each and every day. How have you seen the Meditrack device suite really be able to benefit those individuals? And do any people come to mind when I, when I bring that up.

The first patient I use it on comes to mind. The reason I purchased it in the first place was a professional soccer player, a young lady that I had seen in college at the, at the beginning of her career. And she went off, she made the US national team in 1992 and then went off to play a very long, I think it was 15, 16 year career all throughout Europe. And she would come back Every couple of years and come in, I would treat her more for maintenance than anything else. And one of the big things we would talk about is the lack of strength and conditioning. This is way back. This is really through the late 90s and 2000s, the lack of strength and conditioning for women. Well, Fast forward to 2008. She was at the end of her career, she retired and she came in literally like kind of like what we write about, like a question mark. She really looked like a question mark and two really bad disc herniations that I couldn't do any kind of, you know, standard diversified type of chiropractic manipulation, chiropractic adjustments, drop table, nothing. She was not going to be. That was not going to work straight away. And I said, you know what, that device that I read about, that I keep reading about, that I've read about the last five plus years, I'm ordering that and thank God, you know, I was familiar with the article and Dr. Grover and Orit were wonderful. And I got my first device and you know, the short story is it worked.

I love to hear those success stories in practice especially. And credit to you, Dr. Horowitz, for taking that effort, trying something new, getting out there, really honing in on what's this individual coming in with, what are the challenges that I know that they're going to have with current treatment and what is something I can add to my tool belt that really enables this person to get back their quality of life? It sounds like. And you mentioned a little bit about treatment plans and I'm going to come back to you on this one, Dr. Horowitz, and that's. Can you describe a typical protocol, a typical plan? It probably varies, I imagine, depending upon the clinical symptoms and presentation of the patient. But in general, for docs out there that are totally unfamiliar with this, what are some typical protocols look like when using the MediTrack device?

Well, that really comes from MediTrack directly. And all of Dr. Grover's experience, you know, in an acute patient, 12, 15 treatments, you know that we gradually build them up in time. It's kind of like anything else. If you slam a person with traction, this is something I've definitely learned with using the unit. It's like strength training. If I'm. I can't put several hundred pounds on the bar on the ground and say deadlift, that you may be able to get to it and likely surpass it. But we have to start slowly. So it's the same type of thing with the Meditrack is we're not going to slam somebody with 30 or 40 minutes of traction straight away. We build them up slowly but you know, 12 to 15 treatments and we build up to 15 to 30 minutes. And then we may need to continue that, you know, after that. And how frequently? Well, that's where your clinical skills. And then if the doctor is really good with the rehab exercises and gee golly wiz, maybe a little bit about nutrition and sleep and sunlight, that would be nice to throw in there too. It just depends on how open minded and how much of a sky view, no pun intended, with my background on what we're talking about now. But it's really important that we take that sky view and put it all together. And I think if you add all these modalities together, you'll cut the time that the patient needs the treatment. But on the flip side, you'll make them understand, like I do for me, that this is a great tool for maintenance as we go forward.

I have a feeling a lot of docs listening and watching are getting intrigued and excited when we talk about those clinical pieces of hardware, the new technology out there that can really help us continue to help our patients at a higher level. And Dr. Grober, this question is for you. Those docs out there that are getting excited are intrigued and wondering how they can connect and understand more about the Metatrack suite of tools. Where can they reach out? Where can they learn more docs of Ken?

Visit Meditrack website at Meditrack Co IL or contact Meditrack by phone 1-866-732-0170.

So I know that Metatrak has a couple different devices. One is specifically to the cervical spine. One is specifically to the lumbar spine as I come to understand it. Dr. Horowitz, is that correct? And tell us a little bit about each device and maybe how you've seen it utilized in practice.

Yes. So once again, the company is called meditrack. The lumbar spine device is Vertatrak. That's the device that I first purchased. I think it was 2008 when a professional soccer player came to me at the end of her career. And it's something that I use. It is part of my training session when I squat, when I deadlift, I end my training session with 15 to 20 minutes of verte track use. That's just, that's just part of being 61 years old. Then the other device is called the cervical 2000. That's the cervical spine device. And the short Story there is, when my son was about 2 years old, I had him on my shoulders walking out of the zoo in Washington, D.C. and I began to get some radicular pain. And I've had shoulder injuries before, but I had never had a cervical spine issue. Short story is, it wasn't going away. I had the standard supine device. I used it, and it didn't feel good, and it kind of scared me a little bit. So I was very fortunate. Had a buddy who owned an MRI facility went in, got a cervical spine mri, went back into his office, and he had a cervical spine MRI on the monitor. As I walked into the office and I said, ooh, who's that? That doesn't look very good. He just paused for a second and said, that's you, Steve. So I had two pretty bad disc herniations in my cervical spine. I said, well, you know that. That meditrack company, they make such a wonderful device for the lumbar spine. I thought about getting the cervical spine device, but once again, I was just hesitant because I thought, oh, what I'll call the big dog cervical spine device that everybody uses, the supine device. Well, that. That should work. And it didn't work for me. So once again, I reached out, got the cervical 2000, and within 10 days, oh, I was scared. The ridicular pain was pretty much gone within 10 days to two weeks after using it. And I did the same kind of protocol where I started. Not too many pumps, not Arnold Schwarzenegger lifting up my head and hanging me over the cliff, but very gentle, short period of time, and gradually worked up over a bunch of days in a row. And it was like magic. And again, I still use that as maintenance a couple of times a month.

And let me ask a follow up on that, Dr. Horowitz, because you mentioned it, with the cervical and the lumbar devices, utilizing them for maintenance. So how have you seen the benefits of that? I'm sure it depends upon the patient and their goals and expectations and what you're seeing in your evaluation. But this is something. It's clicking with me. As you say it. It makes total sense, especially for somebody who's involved in, you know, pretty, you know, a good athletic activity. I mean, you are. You are a fit guy. I see all the pictures online. You work out heavy, and you have to have something to counterbalance those forces. How did you consider to think about start using it for maintenance? And how do you think it's benefited you personally as you continues to use it for maintenance over time?

Well, to answer the last part first, it's kept me in the game. I definitely want to be doing it till I die for sure. But I will not to go down too deep a rabbit hole, but I do read the research a lot and I'm always amused by the younger researchers. Too many of them are lifters and I love to watch the progression of their commentary as they get older and things start to change. Where that maintenance thing starts to click a little bit more, right? So if we think about somebody who sits all day, well, why wouldn't I want to use a device that removes the pressure? You know, even, even if you have somebody, you know, my old Jewish mom, whacking me in between the shoulder blades, telling me to sit up straight. Even if you have that coming over you every 15 or 30 minutes, you're still going to fall into the screen, right as, as you work, it's just going to happen. And if you stand all day, there are compressive forces. And then in sports, it's not only lifting. People have to remember that every time you jump and land, rebound, any sport, that's 2, 3, 4, 5. In gymnastics, there have been interesting papers up to 13 times body weight, compressive forces. Why wouldn't you want to use a decompression device as part of your normal maintenance, you know, prehab rehab, whatever word you want to put that should be part of your training program. It makes no sense to me and trust me, folks, all the 20 somethings, 30 somethings beating their chest, use it. It will keep you in the game.

I could not agree more. The unrelenting force of gravity, right? We all are, especially today with our lifestyles today, whether it's standing, whether it's sitting for an extreme amount of time. And you described it perfectly, what I call the fade, right? That axial load starts translating anteriorly as time goes on. As days become weeks, become months, become years. The question is, what are you or your patients doing proactively to counterbalance those forces? And it certainly sounds like the meditrack devices can assist in that process. You got to have something that provides a decompressive force when 24 hours a day, seven days a week, you're under that gravity and that axial load makes sense to me. I couldn't agree more. And I love the personal testimony to it because it showcases somebody who's taken the technology and put it into action in their own life. And I'll encourage everybody listening and watching, they can check out what you're up to online. And you are still very, very active with many, many years of high activity left. So it's a great example of what's possible when you take care of your body. And as you said, gosh, you wish you would have done it a few years earlier. And this is the opportunity for everybody listening to take that bull by the horns to understand what are those proactive things they can do themselves, which I think is a great point. And for their patients, you know, for their benefit long term. I will be sure to drop those links down below as well. So if you're watching this on video, we'll drop the link down below. If you are listening to this on the podcast, you'll notice these links in the episode Show Notes. I'm going to encourage every doc listening and watch. Head over to meditrack Co Ill. I'll drop that link down below. This is a suite of tools that can really take your practice to the next level. As Dr. Horowitz described those individuals that just can't get over the hump. And we all know that we have a percentage of patients that have these challenging disc issues, whether acute or chronic, that we're just unable to get where we'd like to with our hands on technique. Traction on the move, what I'm going to call functional traction is a fantastic way to to think about patient care, to get better results in your practice and to, as I said, take your practice to the next level. So, Dr. Grobert, Dr. Horowitz, thank you so much for taking time today discussing Meta Track. And I know it's opened a lot of doc's eyes to what's possible in their clinic in the months and years to come. Thank you gentlemen.

What a fantastic conversation. I'm going to encourage you to please check out the MetaTrack devices. This episode is also brought to you in conjunction with Power Steps. Orthotics are frequently used to address foot pain and alignment issues. But not all patients need or can afford custom orthotics. This Power Step products were developed by a podiatrist over 30 years ago. My father personally uses them and loves them and he has used just about every orthotic under the sun to no avail. But the Power Step has been a dramatic change in his ability to get.

Up and walk around continued foot problems.

And lumbar problems with my father and powerstep has helped tremendously. You can pick up a free sample for yourself at pro.powerstep.com sample pro.powerstep.com sample and I hope you have a fantastic week in practice and I will talk to you soon.

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