Inclined Bed Therapy

[Algis]

Well understood Andrew.
It is not uncomfortable just that cold but shall be finished soon. I dont have pain. I also expected 10 days to 1 month before getting full use of it.
Urine is strong; but it has been since a long time. It might be more; but I cant see/smell a difference.

More later, thank you!

Algis

[Jugular]

Can one reap the benefits of IBT with a bed that can tilt the top half up (only)? In other words, does the entire body have to lie parallel to the inclined plane? Would tilting the head up further with a pillow affect anything?

Many thanks if you can answer!

[AndrewKFletcher]

Jugular

No, sleeping with the upper half raised is pretty much useless and may cause pressure sores.

Your weight when sleeping like this is compressing your spinal column.
It is also compressing the flesh and skin on your buttocks for many hours and this may eventually lead to the development of a pressure sore.

Your circulation is only assisted partially, but compromised because the same compression of the flesh in your buttocks together with the inevitable build up of venous and arterial pressure due to the veins and arteries affected by this compression will be counter productive.

Then there is the problem with stretched tendons and ligaments, bent forward, there is inevitably some tension applied to the muscles, tendons and ligaments. Over time this can have a detrimental affect

Last but not least are the joints in the hips and in the spine, If you are sleeping on your back, this means you are bent forward for 8 hours a day. Elderly people walking bent over, unable to straighten up, was that the position they slept in?
Sleeping on your side with the upper half raised will adversely affect the hip and spine joints, sleeping on your back will also adversely affect the spine. Sleeping on your tummy will result in someone calling an ambulance..

Inclined Therapy I.T.

Sleeping on an inclined bed however, does quite the opposite.

Immediately the spine is placed under gentle traction, (the opposite to the folded posture). The weight is distributed evenly so you don't feel like a sack of potatoes when you lay down, or the bed somehow feels softer than before.

Your heart rate decreases by 10-12 beats per minute on an inclined bed while you sleep, yet manages to pump more blood around the body, which in turn causes more friction as the blood flows around faster, which in turn generates more heat and you feel warmer in bed, while the cooling system also benefits so we are able to maintain our body temperature better as more water evaporates due to the increased / maintained temperature. Sleeping flat for instance causes a 2 degree drop in body temperature around the time that most people die in bed, yet sleeping inclined does not.

Your respiration rate decreases by 4-5 breaths per minute, which is a lot, yet oxygenation improves because the lungs are inflating more and deflating more which takes a little longer so although there are less breaths per minute a greater volume of air is moved in and out, which again increases the evaporation and this in turn alters the density of the surfactant in the respiratory tract which in turn alters the density of the surfactant that is returned back into the blood and gently assists the circulation as it flows through the arteries providing we are correctly aligned / Inclined.

But we don't just have blood circulating, we have lymph and cerebrospinal fluid, we have a flow of fluids through the tissue and skin, through the bones, and even a flow through the myelin wrapped around the nervous system. The heart is not responsible for these other circulations so cannot be attributed to them. Yet we know posture and respiration plays an important roll from the literature. So could all of these independent circulations require density changes from evaporation and correct alignment with gravity to gently assist them to make the repairs required to overcome a whole range of illnesses?

I believe this to be true and indeed have already proven it many times before.

What we are already seeing unfolding here on this forum is impressive and If Foreversprings and others posts are anything to go by we are in for a very exciting 2010.

I do not believe in the majority of cases surgery is required!

Varicose veins were believed once to require surgery, yet the surgery frequently fails requiring more expensive surgery, which raises the question why?

So many people have noticed their veins no longer ache or bulge using I.T. So rather than approaching this problem by patching up the damage, why not engage the possibility that given sufficient time using I.T. we may not require surgery and those that do not respond will probably require surgery?

Interesting times are afoot.

Happy New Year

Andrew K Fletcher

[joyj]

hallo, im new to this site. ive had my bed inclined 6inches for 4 weeks, ive had ppms for 7 years. ive stopped having burning legs at night, one thing ive noticed the last 2 days is i smell of bo and im showering more, ive never been a person who sweats is this normal and how long does it last.

[AndrewKFletcher]

Hi joyj

Thanks for joining us.

Interesting that you have began to sweat. Many years of researching spinal cord injury, where a person's ability to sweat is often compromised, was reversed and their ability to maintain their body temperature was also recovered.

Some people with ms also lose the capacity to evaporate water due to the lower body temperature, people with ms often state they are often very cold, with cold discoloured hands and feet an obvious sign of poor circulation and low metabolism.

I.T. reverses this problem, affording people the comfort of warmer hands and feet and this inevitably means that more evaporation is taking place, which concentrates the chemicals that cause odour at the skin surface.

Now this is fascinating for me. We drink rainwater and bathe in rainwater, and revert to chlorinated tap water. I personally find that chlorinated tap water makes me stink, as I do not use underarm deodorants due to their use of zirconium oxide, which is toxic for cells. Would rather wash my pits more often tbh.

Yet when I use rainwater for washing and drink rainwater, I don't smell!

Have left my pits 2 days without washing "In the interest of science" and although they did smell slightly, it was a completely different odour.

Hope this helps

Andrew

Have you noticed anything other than the lack of burning in your legs at night?

[joyj]

hallo andrew, small changes subtle ones that im not quite sure of. more feeling in one side of right foot, pinker feet and vivid dreams. im finding it harder to get off to sleep but im sleeping deeper when i do. now new year is here im back to healthier eating, i hope that helps. i only drink bottled water

[AndrewKFletcher]

hallo andrew, small changes subtle ones that im not quite sure of. more feeling in one side of right foot, pinker feet and vivid dreams. im finding it harder to get off to sleep but im sleeping deeper when i do. now new year is here im back to healthier eating, i hope that helps. i only drink bottled water

Thank you Joyj

This is an important observation regarding colour changes in feet.

Do you feel warmer in bed?

[happy_canuck]

Hi all,

Reporting in after a three days back on IBT after three days off.

- my BP is still very high (lowest reading this morning upon waking was 148/88). My GP told me yesterday to double my BP meds, but that it will take 3-6 weeks to decrease my BP. I confirmed with the cooks that my holidays eating was NOT highly salted, so the spike in BP is unexplained. It was ~115/75 before Christmas.
- I changed my diet to watch protein and sodium intake much more closely (DASH diet), which greatly reduced my BP in the past. Apart from the holiday sugar intake, I think I was pretty much following it all along, but I have tightened up my monitoring.
- pulse is as low as 45 beats/min upon waking. It has been that low before, but normally is 52-55.
- hands are less numb upon waking, but slowly "numb" up through the morning.
- sleeping much more soundly on IBT; no night time trips to the bathroom.
- bladder infection confirmed yesterday and now am on antibiotics 2x a day.

I am definitely a "work in progress"!

~ Sandra

p.s. still no snoring from hubbie...

[AndrewKFletcher]

It is possible that your bladder infection has caused the spike in bp. This is a condition known as autonomic dysreflexia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomic_dysreflexia

Hope this helps

Andrew

[Johnnymac]

It is pissible that your bladder

this made me chuckle

Andrew, the holidays have been crazy, but will finally be building the platform to incline our bed this weekend. Looking forward to the results.

[SandyK]

Hi Andrew. I am going to incline my daughters bed first because it's smaller. She is 18 and her sleeping is awful. She can only stay asleep for a few hours and then wakes up to read for a couple of hours and this cycle continues until morning. I am hoping this helps her. She is a college student and I am concerned for her health. I will report after she's been inclined for a week. Thanks so much!

[AndrewKFletcher]

It is pissible that your bladder

this made me chuckle

Andrew, the holidays have been crazy, but will finally be building the platform to incline our bed this weekend. Looking forward to the results.

Thanks for pointing that out, made me giggle also

Get that bed up asap

Happy New Year to you guys n gals Have a great one.

We are baby sitting our grandaughter, who sleeps inclined from Birth and is being monitored very closely because her progress so far is outstripping all the other babies of her age. 8 weeks on Sunday And beautiful, like her grandparents

[AndrewKFletcher]

SandyK

Great, should help your daughter loads more than just her sleep pattern, even when awake on the incline people still report loads more energy and refreshed.

[happy_canuck]

Loved the Freundian slip, Andrew! Yes, I think my bladder infection may have affected my BP.

Happy new year to you all and thanks especially to Andrew for his great information on doing everything we can to feel our best.

I am convinced IBT is a good move for us and am thinking of raising our bed even further in the new year.

Happy 2010!

~ Sandra

[Jugular]

Jugular

No, sleeping with the upper half raised is pretty much useless and may cause pressure sores.

Your weight when sleeping like this is compressing your spinal column.
It is also compressing the flesh and skin on your buttocks for many hours and this may eventually lead to the development of a pressure sore.

Your circulation is only assisted partially, but compromised because the same compression of the flesh in your buttocks together with the inevitable build up of venous and arterial pressure due to the veins and arteries affected by this compression will be counter productive.

Then there is the problem with stretched tendons and ligaments, bent forward, there is inevitably some tension applied to the muscles, tendons and ligaments. Over time this can have a detrimental affect

Last but not least are the joints in the hips and in the spine, If you are sleeping on your back, this means you are bent forward for 8 hours a day. Elderly people walking bent over, unable to straighten up, was that the position they slept in?
Sleeping on your side with the upper half raised will adversely affect the hip and spine joints, sleeping on your back will also adversely affect the spine. Sleeping on your tummy will result in someone calling an ambulance.

Thanks for 'straightening' me out on this Andrew!