Love Handles aid ache in back

Torrey AndersonSchoepe

Retired dentist Eduardo Burgueno’s aching back has led him to launch

a new, international business.

Burgueno’s Disc Traction Belt -- known affectionately as Love

Handles -- was awarded a bronze medal in May by the French Society of

Sports Medicine at the Concours Lepine, a Paris competition sponsored

by the Association of Inventors and Manufacturers.

Burgueno -- a native of Uruguay and a Laguna Beach resident for 22

years -- practiced dentistry in Los Angeles for about 12 years.

But it wasn’t his experience dealing with aching teeth that

inspired Love Handles.

“Being a back sufferer myself, I was going to chiropractors, I was

going to doctors, taking MRIs because I was in pain that was

increasing with age,” he said.

“I was going to a chiropractor every 1 1/2, to two months, or I

was staying in bed for two or three days. And one day it was like a

flash. I had the need to lean on something, and I thought of my own

pelvic bone.

“This is the strongest part of the skeleton, and [I realized] I

could unload my spinal weight on the hips directly with a belt that

would be nonelastic. It would have handles, allowing you to push down

on the handles and that way, you could stretch the spinal column. It

feels good when your back gets elongated, because it relieves the

pain from the compressed nerves.”

The belt is simple and appears to work wonders on many who have

tried it.

“You put it around your waist. Then you glide it down so it fits

on your hips. You push down without hunching [your shoulders], and

you feel every disc going up and up, and it relieves the pain,”

Burgueno explained.

Burgueno and his partner, Benjamin Jensen, president of BurJen

Enterprises, decided to launch their business last year in the United

States, but when a friend overseas successfully tried it, they

brought the invention to Paris, where Burgeuno has a second home.

“In January of 2004, we contacted an invention company in Newport

Beach,” Burgueno said. “We applied for the patent, we applied for the

name, we did all the legal stuff, and we waited and waited and then

boom. My best friend in Paris had really bad back pain. I said, I can

lend [the belt] to you for two or three days.

“She came back two hours later, and she said: ‘This is fabulous.

You have to do this in France. You have to make this belt. I am

relieved of my pain.’ This is a lady who had been popping pills,

anti-inflammation pills, and muscle relaxants for years, and going to

the chiropractor once a week, and then, never again. She maintains

her back with exercises, with the belt. So we decided to register the

brand in France to go for the European patent.”

They also entered the belt in the Paris Fair, a 10-day exhibition,

where Burgueno and Jensen displayed it under the name Poignees d’Amor

or Love Handles.

“It was totally unexpected for me because there were about 20 or

30 competitors in the medical field,” Burgueno said.

The experience at the fair was an exciting one.

“The closing of the fair was at 7 p.m. on Sunday. We had made

friends with the people in the other booths around us, and so we

planned on having a little party. We were going to have a little

champagne afterward. At 6:30, we started getting a crowd around our

booth, and they were dying to buy belts. The fair was closed, and

people were still buying belts. Finally, I had to go over there and

bring over two glasses of champagne to the booth.

In addition, Disc Traction has been evaluated by a test group of

about two-dozen people who also endorsed it.

After their accomplishment in Paris, and the success they had with

the test group, Jensen and Burgueno set up BurJen Enterprises to

produce the therapeutic belts. Burgueno is managing director.

Disc Traction will be manufactured in China.

“We are estimating about three months until we get our first belts

coming to us,” said Jensen. “We have three sizes, small, medium and

large. They will cost under $50.”

“We are going to be selling them in catalogs, online, maybe

shopping channels,” said Burgueno. “But we are trying to reach the

medical profession through chiropractors or physical therapists,

because as my chiropractor said, it would be a great aid in the

treatment of patients. We are planning to get into the European

market as well as Latin America.”

In October, Burgueno is going back to Paris for the World

Convention of Chiropractors, which he says will coincide with the

European launching of Disc Traction.

For more information, call (949) 499-5687, or e-mail

[email protected].