Our present-day sedentary lifestyle comes with many health problems of its own. Lower back pain is the result of years of poor posture, whether we sit, stand, move or exercise.
Our vertebrae are separated by discs which act as shock absorbers. These slowly become compressed by the effects of gravity and lose their shock absorbing capacity. This leads to spinal compression and back pain, sometimes along with serious ligament and nerve root damage.
As long back as 400 BC, Hippocrates, the “Father of Medicine”, hoisted one of his patients upside down on a ladder to provide spinal traction. Inversion therapy involves hanging upside down, which applies gentle traction using the very same force of gravity to stretch your spine instead of compressing it. This relieves back pain by increasing the space between your vertebrae and relaxing the pressure on your discs, ligaments and nerve roots.
Every nerve in the body leaves the spine through the spaces between the vertebrae. Increasing intra-vertebral space means reducing pressure on the nerve roots, which means less back pain and less likelihood of nerve root damage.
Further, oscillating up and down on an inversion table creates a pumping action for the fluids around the spinal discs. This forces waste out and draws in fluid around the discs. Inversion helps to relax muscles and increase blood flow, and in the long term may help to realign the spine.
The advantage of using an inversion table for back problems is that it also improves your circulation, flexibility and mobility. Your posture becomes better and your body better aligned, improving your general feeling of well-being.
Inversion therapy has benefited many hundreds of people and made their lives easier and pain-free. Thanks to this therapy, they’re able to sleep comfortably through the night and enjoy an active lifestyle again, free from numbness and pain in their feet, toes, legs, hips, back, shoulders and neck.
In 2007, a preliminary study at Newcastle University showed that back inversion tables drastically reduced the need for back surgery. Only 23% of a group of patients who underwent inversion therapy along with physiotherapy needed surgery, compared to almost 80% of a group who only got physiotherapy.
If you are suffering from chronic back pain, inversion therapy for your back may be just the solution for you. It is safe and inexpensive, easy to use, hassle-free.
Click on the link below to check out the inversion tables we recommend.
Jesse is the co-founder and visionary CEO of The Healthy Back Institute®, the world-leading source of natural back pain solutions. His mission as a former back pain sufferer is to help others live pain free without surgery and pharmaceuticals.
