Inclined Bed Therapy

[William57]

Hi Andrew,
I am since december 2009 diagnosed with MS. I am a male of 52 years old and did have a very good health (untill now, so to speak).
I have read your IBT and I saw immediatelly the parallels with the findings of dr. Zamboni. So, I have inclined my bed two weeks ago for 3 degrees and since two days for 4 degrees.

It is hard to tell the tiny improvements I have experienced were caused by what. As soon as I had heard the diagnose, I have started to change my diet (no more espresso's, no diary products, no alcohol; I drink 1,5 l green tea a day, I eat a lot of fish nowadays). And I have inclined my bed. So very much parameters that have changed.

But my question is, why do you have to incline the whole bed and not just the upper half? It makes some sense to me, but I fail to make an educated guess for some consistent theory on this. Because the theory is about draining the Central Nervous System and that is only located at the upper half of the body. So, why not jut incline the upper half of the body? That is what puzzles me.

I guess you have explained it 100 times, but because I can not find the answer on your website, therefor I try it here.

Thanks in advance for your answer.

William (the Netherlands)

[ErikaSlovakia]

Dear Andrew,
I also forget to say maybe one important thing. I was born with spina bifida. I do not know how to say it in English.
My pain comes exactly from that place. But 10 cm was fine.
As I sleep alone in my room I have no idea what I do during the night.
I do not have problem with 16 cm just my back does not like it anymore.
I just can say I do not like flat.
Maybe I am simply getting old
Erika

[AndrewKFletcher]

Erika

Maybe your back and posture are being corrected using I.T. and it is the traction that is causing the increase in pain? This is certainly a possibility.

As for ageing, osteoporosis, muscular atrophy, varicose veins, oedema, thrombosis, skin conditions and failing sight have been reversed using I.T.
Even finger nails and toenails change in condition and grow stronger and faster.

In fact rapid ageing has been attributed to flat bed rest in many studies that have been published.

[AndrewKFletcher]

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=app ... opic=14357

Frequently asked and answered questions can be found here to save you wading through the threads. But I would read these threads as there are some impressive reports to be found in them.

Sleeping sitting up is not a good idea considering that this is something most people do that have lost their ability to walk.

Thanks William

[William57]

Hi Andrew,

thanks for your quick reply. My question was actually the first on the list. Sorry I did not find it by myself.

Anyway, much obliged!

William

[AndrewKFletcher]

Andrew, for the first time in 6 yrs. my feet are not only 'normal' size but neither is purplish in color. This is HUGE! The numbness/pins,needles and 'fuzzy' feeling is all diminished along with the swollen, tight feeling. Also I was showing my dghter how I can now lift right knee to place my foot onto the footrest of the w/chair without having to lift it with my hands.... (she cried )

edited this to clarify I began IT jan 5 2010....11 days!

Katie, this is clearly a result of I.T. The returning to normal of your skin colour in your feet and the reduction in oedema is exactly what was predicted from previous study results. Yet raising the legs of the bed is still recommended by Doctors, nurses and surgeons.

There is only room for one method and hopefully that is the one that produces the results!

You have not had an operation to recover these impressive gains and people need to think about trying our method before ever considering s risky and expensive invasive procedure. If the bed fails to produce the desired results in 6 months, then and only then should surgery be considered!

Thank you for posting your update. There is much more to expect from I.T.

Ideally when you are strong enough, using a standing frame for 20 minutes, shifting your weight from one foot to another will be of great benefit for getting rid of that wheelchair once and for all.

Standing frames can be obtained from the NHS in the UK. Talk to your gp and consultants about obtaining one, or find a physiotherapy place that has these for use by visitors. Spinal cord injury rehab is another possibility for obtaining use of one on a regular basis.

The parallel bars shown on the Youtube video is another option and inexpensive to have erected at your home over a grassed area for safety.

Make sure whatever you do is supervised by a member of the family or professional helper.

While on the bed, practice raising and lowering your legs as an exercise. The same with your arms would be useful too. Little and often is the recipe for complete recovery.

I hope people who have read your reports will follow your example and join the conversations with their own results.

My wife and I smiled when you wrote your daughter had cried. Let’s make her and you even happier in the next few months.

Andrew

[Jugular]

Week Two In Review

To chart my progress with IBT, I have copied my earlier post below. After a little more than two weeks with IBT, I can’t say I’ve noticed any improvement in my degree of disability, nor have I gotten any worse. I did notice some change in my taste, not better – just different. For instance my regular beer tastes bitterer now. For this reason, regrettably, I’ve decided to terminate IBT.

J/k, but I may have to look into switching brands.

Apart from ruining my beer, I’ve been getting terrible lower right quadrant back pain in the morning. I previously reported some lower back spinal pain that I thought was due to poor lifting techniques when loading up newspaper for the recycling bin. This pain I’m feeling now, however, is muscular. Fortunately, it dissipates during the day, but in the morning it is so bad I can’t sleep more than 6 hours.

But here’s this thing. This may be one of those times where you go looking for something and, while you don’t find what you’re looking for, you find something else that you didn’t realize was lost.

So not finding any improvement in my disability yet, I did find that the back pain may be due to my back/hips straightening out. As a graduate (with high honours) of the school of funny walks, years of my left side dragging my right has bent up my frame. I could see this plainly from my bellybutton being pulled quite off kilter or, when sitting straight with my feet together, one knee would poke out in front of the other.

Well, I’m happy to report that my bellybutton is now lining up nearly to center and my knees are lining up when I sit. During the day, I’m walking/limping squarer too. So I’m going to see if the back pain goes away and look into taking a longer acting analgesic to be able to get a better sleep. For now, I'll content myself with my newly discovered on-center navel gazing abilty.

This is my 'slant' on IBT after a week.

Method: I piled 2 x 6's of spare cedar boards 3 high under the top support of a platform frame for a futon bed. This gave me 5" of lift (2 x 6's are not quite 2's). The top leg of the frame allowed for an overhang of a foot or more. Thus, the lift should be about 6" if measured at the head and should produce the desired slope of 5 degrees. I confirmed this with my iPhone (yes, there is an ap for that) which showed a slope of 6 degrees measured in 3 places. I calculated a slope of 4.8 degrees, however, with actual measurements. I found it reassuring to verify the slope with some actual measurements because not all beds have the top legs right under the top part of the mattress. And I'd hate to be a few degrees short of a cure (I know it doesn't have to be that precise).

Here is a useful link to help with the calculation for those of us who have forgotten our high school trigonometry but wish to be precise.

http://easycalculation.com/trigonometry ... angles.php

Initial impressions: I had no difficulty adapting to my new tilted sleep world. I'd venture as far as to say that it was intuitively correct. Indeed, flat beds seem to be an odd idea to me now. I guess Andrew will go down in history as the man who dared to ask, why are beds flat?

My first few nights were a disaster. I immediately came down with a really bad sore throat and fever that laid me up for two days over the holidays. I can't see how it is related except that I rarely get sick. I've, knock on wood, only missed two days of plus full time work in over 20 years due to sickness. I recovered quickly though - enough to put in a 16 hour day on my first day back .

Apart from that, I have to endorse the positive effects IBT has on posture. I feel much more straight during the day and my upper back scapular muscle pain with which I have always been plagued (non-MS related) has vastly improved. My lower back spine-related pain has increased, however. I'm not relating this to the IBT however, but to having lifted heavy newspapers to take out to the recycling bin over the holidays. I like to use an inverter board occasionally for my back. IBT does seem to stretch your back. You'll be able to maintain your height longer I think.

I am sleeping well and feeling refreshed for most of the day, even though I have been sleeping on 6 hours for most of the week. 7 is ideal for me. I need to work on that (i.e. not go to bed so late). Overall, there is a noticeable, but not dramatic, improvement in my sleep quality and effectiveness since going on IBT.

I think its worth going on IBT for these benefits alone (improved sleep and better posture) outside of any MS therapy.

Abatement of MS symptoms: Thus far, I do not have much to report. My MS has me presenting similar to a stroke victim, with rt foot drop, rt arm and grip weakness, weakened rt side, but with relatively normal left-sided strength. I am my own control group I guess. My condition has been fairly stable or slower decline over the last five years. I had already noticed some improvement using vibration exercise (that I wrote about) which is supposed to improve circulation and strength in nerve-weakened muscles. I am hoping for continued improvement combining it with IBT.

I do have one nasty symptom though of a sting that I get in my upper right neck that likes to torment me, especially if I am trying to sleep. Its an odd sort of MS thing that feels like a giant mosquito is biting my neck and sends a tingling burning sensation down into my arms. Oddly, it causes increased feeling and muscle strength rather than the opposite but is not pleasant. Some kind of scaring thing, a frayed extension cord trying to work? The attacks are positionally aggravated but not necessarily triggered, thus I've had to sleep only on my back with my head elevated for some time now (like I’m trying to prevent some wires from touching). With IBT, I am pleased to report that I can now get to sleep with a normal pillow and can actually sleep on my right side. Not once, have I had to get out of bed to take some Lyrica and sit on the couch for an hour waiting for it to dampen the stings.

So I'll wait to see if in the ensuing weeks I see any more differences and post my progress. for the time-being, I give IBT a thumbs up

[Vhoenecke]

I am thinking that the more advanced people are with their MS disabilities the more time it will take to notice significant differences. My main issue with MS was fatigue. I took a drug(modafinil) in the morning to help me stay awake long enough to work part-time and to do something with my family. I still take the drug but I may cut back to a half dose daily. I no longer get tired at 5-6 pm. I always went to bed then. Now I noticed that I can stay up late and stay in bed longer. I seem to sleep more sound and wake feeling like I had slept. Before after sleeping for 8 hrs I would wake up feeling like I hadn't slept in 2 weeks. I still haven't dreamt but I know I will soon. Just to let you know where I am at with fatigue. Last week my daughter was ill, I got up at 4:30 and went to work to plan my day (teacher) I spent the day with her, no rest and didn't go to bed until midnight. There is no way I would have been able to have a day like that 3 weeks ago. You will be having changes but they may take longer to show. Thanks for listnening.
Also I have lost a lot of fluid off my body. I feel so much better.

Val

[katie45]

Please please don't quit IBT ! I have the same back pain you describe and am sure it's my spine straightening...it hurts like hell too but I've been in terrible pain for so long I forget to say it here. Also my hip girdle/ belly button etc is all twisted as well...I am convinced the straightening is happening as the r hip bone is now 2'' higher than the left but was 3''. when I started. Did you know alcohol drastically increases iron absorption? I love cold beer too, dammit !

[hwebb]

Andrew, you asked what are my symptoms when I relapse?

It seems to follow a pattern...the most-numb part of my face (my lips)goes back to normal (temporarily)...and other parts of my face and head start going numb. The newly numb parts move around - numb ear in the morning...other ear numb by afternoon...temple numb the next day...then also my scalp numb...then finally I get almighty brain fog where I lose my sense of direction and short-term memory (all temporary). I feel the relapse is over when the brain-fog lifts. I'm lucky I haven't been losing my strength or balance during these relapses.
When the relapse symptoms subside...my lips go numb again. But they seem less numb than they were just before the relapse started. This is why I'm able to say I keep relapsing, but I seem to be getting better overall. My hands are steadily improving with time.
I have kept my bed inclined throughout these relapses (sleep tilted every night for around 2 months). I was at the start of a relapse when i tilted my bed 2 months ago (though I didn't recognise I was relapsing ...cause I'm new to MS).
I definitely think the relapses are vein related...as I have a v.prominent vein on the side of my face and neck...and it gets more blue and bulgy when I'm relapsing. Was scarcely visible before MS.
hwebb

[AndrewKFletcher]

HWebb

Pay attention to higher than normal atmospheric humidity. Living in a river valley or close to the coast can drastically elevate humidity.

2 studies were conducted, one in the Rhone valley in France. Can't remember the stats exactly but the incidence of ms was around 46% higher than the national average.

Seasonal variations in ms are well understood, but what about geographic location?

High humidity acording to this theory could comprimise the circulation, whether standing, sitting or laying down.

Do you by anychance have a damp home, dry washing on the radiators or have your bedroom downstairs and the kitchen / bathroom upstairs?

If humidity can be identified as a factor then a dehimidifier is essential to dry the air you breath in so that more moisture can be exhaled.

A lady, who I may have mentioned before had a dropped foot problem, she could not get the foot to recover, even though she had massive improvements on I.T. (first pilot study)

I suggested she used a dehimidifier at night, while sleeping on the Inclined bed. The dehumidifier was in the hallway with bedroom door ajar so as the noise was not a problem.

Over a short period, her dropped foot improved and became normal.

She called me one day to let me know she had been experimenting turing off the dehumidifier, probably because she remained unconvinced it had an affect. The very first morning without it her dropped foot was back.

She experimented a few times and always found the dropped foot gone using the dehumidifier and the bed.

This fitted nicely with the density circulation theory.

Andrew

[AndrewKFletcher]

Val

Glad your responding well to I.T. Your fluid loss is what I was looking for. Did you lose much weight with the fluid loss?

This is a very important observation, because for fluid to move back into the veins and out through the bladder, the pressure inside the veins must have been lowered together with an increase in tension on the blood molecules inside the veins. The opposite is responsible for the oedema, fluid moves from the veins into the surrounding tissue because the pressure in the viens is higher than the pressure outside of the veins.

Odd that a doctor or surgeon has not yet commented on these impressive posts from everyone?

Andrew

[AndrewKFletcher]

Jugular the joke was cool, have a beer for me.

Regarding developing a more upright posture.
A girl with CP had scoliosis (curvature of the spine) Yes had! For 12 years her spine was curved. The angled bed straightened it, confirmed by a specialist in Wales!

It comes as no surpirse that you and Katie are noticing changes in your posture, but there is always a price to pay for being put on the rack every night, albeit a very gentle benign rack, it is still stretching your spine and limbs, allowing the fluid filled cushions to rehydrate between the joints.

Ever seen an elderly person doubled over, barely able to walk and in obvious pain? Was that the position they slept flat in?

Osteoporosis has been completely reversed using I.T. This cannot take place without an increase in bone density. This means that although we increase in weight, we may find our clothes becoming loose.

Muscular atrophy has been reversed also, again an increase in weight and a reduction in fluid and fat.

Food for thought?

[Vhoenecke]

Andrew I am losing weight. My pants are a lot bigger now. I used to feel so much pressure in my body which in turn affected my mood. Not so anymore. What a relief that is for me. I always said before that it feels like I am going to blow up. My blood pressure wasn't high at all but when I was sent to emergency with my bad attack I was sent as a possible stroke victim. Right away they put me on blood pressure medication. I don't have high blood pressure but I still take the meds. I may try to wein off them soon.

Val

[shye]

Hi Andrew,
I started Inclined Bed Therapy (6 inches at head) about 1 1/2 months ago, but was under lots of stress and also starting into incredibly helpful work with a chiropractor, and changing diet and supplements, so a little hard to differentiate what is helping what. Sorry did not post regularly--would have been more hellpful to both of us, but had too much going on.

definitely more feeling in feet and hands (and also now know how LITTLE feeling i had had)--color now in feet --wake up without all the post nasal drip used to have, sleep better, rarely need to get up to urinate during the night now--
Sometimes feet actually throb too much now! I'm sure it will even out, and is SO NICE to have such feeling rather than just about none (and as I say, I really was not aware how very little feeling I had in them). I have had raynaud's syndrome for quite a # of years, where the least bit of temperature change for the cooler (even air conditioning on a hot day) would make my hands and feet freeze up to point could not operate, felt like very thick semi-frozen gel running thru body, starting at hands and feet and gradually taking over rest of body, to point could not function--including not being able to use muscles of mouth. Now, even thru ski gloves still, I feel the cold, feel the hurt of it (before just aware the feeling was going). Still do freeze up, but not as often. As I say, the big difference is the FEELING. This can only be a sign of even better to come I think.
I have also gotten some incredibly helpful chiropractic work done--freed my atlas from its constantly rotated position last month !!!! which relieved me from incredibly bad pain that I had for so many years--and which I am sure has relieved pressure on arteries to brain, and I would think veins out--whatever, am acting, feeling, thinking better than in a LONG LONG time (many years). The chiropractor has also kneaded out a lot of the adhesions in my back, shoulders, that built up over the years (slight scoliosis), so standing better and feeling better. (Have also been doing exercises specific to neck and to those back areas for about a year now). I imagine the Inclined Bed is helping all this, at least it will maintain the better posture now I think. (will comment on osteo when have more time).

Also taking different ratios of mega vitamins from what i had been taking, which change is helpful.
So, a littlle hard to differentiate what helping what, but all in all, Inclined bed therapy is a big part of the improvements, and it will be part of me from now on.
Don't have more time now, but I think I covered most--will post more frequently from now on.

my deepest gratitude to you Andrew for sharing this healing modality.