Inversion Therapy
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Inversion therapy, or the act of hanging upside down by your feet for medicinal purposes, is gaining increasing interest in recent years. Hanging upside down can be accomplished in several ways, but in order to achieve the medicinal value hanging upside down cannot be accomplished by standing on your hands, standing on your head or, hanging from your knees. Instead you must use an inversion table, inversion chair, or even gravity boots.
Over time, gravity and pounding from activities such as running cause our joints to compress which can cause pain. This is especially true of back pain. Our spine is made up of discs with a soft substance in between them to act as cushioning. When our spine compresses the interspersed substance is compressed as well. It can bulge out and hit surrounding nerves causing a great deal of pain. The goal of inversion therapy is to combat this. By hanging upside down your gravity pulls your joins in the exact opposite direction of normal – a standing position. This is said to allow the joints to return to a more natural position and help with chronic back pain.
Muscle tightness is another component of back pain. Inversion therapy can actually help in this area as well. Hanging upside down allows muscles to stretch in ways that would be very difficult, if not impossible to achieve otherwise. This loosening can relieve back pain as well.
Inversion therapy has several benefits in addition to the most publicized, that of relieving back pain. Supporters claim that is also helps improve posture, aids in cardiovascular and lymphatic circulation, and helps with flexibility depending on how and how often you use the device.
Back pain, flexibility, and posture have already pretty much been covered. Let’s explore circulation a little bit. It’s believed that the position of hanging upside down allows the heart to more easily pump blood to the brain. I can only assume that this is a good thing, allowing more brain activity. The increased circulation in the lymphatic system is especially appealing to athletes. Proponents believe that inversion allows the lymphatic system to get rid of waste more quickly, which results in a quicker recovery time for athletes.
There are some opponents to inversion therapy. However, there basic argument is that inversion therapy does nothing, not that it’s harmful. About a decade ago there were some claims that it could cause a stroke in participants who suffered from heart problems, however, this was later disproved by the very researcher who wrote the original article. My research has concluded that no significant injury has occurred as a result of inversion therapy as long as the products have been on the market. The only consistent side effect has been straining of the neck muscles resulting from participants using the devices for too long and too soon. Please do consult with a physician though if you suffer from any chronic heart conditions, eye conditions, or are pregnant.
Jared is a health guru who writes about the benefit of inversion chairs and the benefit of inversion tables.
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