1/6/10

Inclined Bed Therapy

Just a note: Andrew K. Fletcher corrected my analogy in this post, see his comment for more from him. How cool is it that he took the time to comment? He is fast becoming one of my heroes.

About two months ago, I read about Inclined Bed Therapy and it made sense to me, especially in light of CCSVI. By raising the head of your bed by a 5% incline, or 4-6 inch difference from head to foot on a full length bed, you allow gravity to assist your blood circulation.

Andrew K. Fletcher is the "inventor" of this therapy, he uses his resources to spread the word about how beneficial IBT is for everyone, not just those with MS and he gets nothing in return.

If you can imagine a flat table with tubing in the shape of a U laying on top. If you were to pump water though the tubing, it would take lots of effort to get the water all the way to the top side of the U. Now incline the table by 5%, gravity will help the water roll effortlessly to the top of the tubing. Your veins work the same way.

I feel raising the head of my bed has had the most benefit on my health since I change my diet and I am tempted to say it has had more effect, though I believe nutrition is very important. I am no longer fatigued most of the day, I don't have to rest at 4:00pm just so I can make dinner and guess what? I stay up to bring in the New Year! Two months ago I was heading to bed at 9:30 every night.

So here is what I did:
I had bed risers in my garage, the ones stores sell so that you can make your bed higher to store stuff underneath. I had my husband help me lift the bed while I put two of them in place at the head of the bed. Then I measured to see how much of a lift they gave. Because of the placement of the legs of the metal frame, beds can vary in head height, even using the same bed risers. Mine was a perfect 6".

Andrew suggests you start with 4" to get used to it. To do that you can just put a 2 by4 under the legs at the foot of your bed until you are ready to go all the way.

Two weeks ago, my 19 year old sister A had an MRI and it showed a lesion. It is most likely the start of MS, a very scary thing for our whole family, that would make it 3 daughters with MS, crazy! I immediately raised the head of her bed with the two left over bed risers. She is sleeping deeper, feeling better and wakes up in the morning ready for the day.

I am trying to convince my sister Z (who also has MS) to incline the head of her bed, but she is worried that her husband's space with be disrupted. To this I would like to respond: Your husband loves you! He wants you to be healthy and happy. I am sure that this little sacrifice on his part will help you lift out of a lot of the fatigue you have been experiencing. I know it sounds too good to be true and you are a doubter, but I bet he will try it if you ask him to.

Here is a list of benefits I found here:

Benefits To You ...

--- Teenager reports all pimples went in two weeks (verified).

--- MS, Parkinson's, Hashimoto's and Arthritis improvements.

--- Huge detox to the body, this has been verified via client response to lymphatic massage (clients on IBT no-longer display symptoms of toxin flush) when they are sleeping on an incline.

--- Sleep right through the night. Breathing problems eliminated, sleep apnea, snoring, cot deaths resolved. This is absolutely amazing and will save the lives of thousands of people.

--- Provides Fascia Trauma Unwinding - Check the Myofascial Release menu. Absolutely incredible how this function of Inclined Bed Therapy operates. If you want to feel young, pain free, energized and in top health, give this a go.

--- Bones actually grow longer, you will grow taller.

--- Balances the pelvic girdle and addresses Scoliosis/Kyphosis/Lordosis and Dowager's hump problems.

--- Never be cold again in Winter, IBT keeps the body metabolism ticking along. You will get hotter in Summer, so take off the extra covers.

--- Clients with high blood pressure have seen their blood pressure normalize after a few months. Give it a go !

--- Nightly dreams become lucid (may be a product of lower toxins in the body and elevated oxygen levels).

--- Your heart wont work as hard, now this is going to extend life 10, may be 20 years, may be more ? (Just do it)

--- Oedema problems resolved. Yep, medical science got it wrong telling you to raise your feet, raise from your head and be startled by the results.

--- The most common report is that sleeping on an incline feels more natural than sleeping flat. People after sleeping inclined for a few months are never happy going back to sleeping horizontal. This is very addictive, you'll actually enjoy going to bed.

--- I have monitored several clients who used to spend up to $40 per month on general headache and pain killing drugs. They now have extra savings as they no-longer suffer head-aches or pain. Ooops! Mr Pharmaceutical won't like this. This may very well affect Pharmaceutical profits. Spread the word, because no one else will.

--- A message to smokers! For the first few weeks, may be a month, you will start coughing when you get out of bed in the morning, and this may pass after half an hour or so. This is IBT repairing your lungs. The increased humidity in your lungs and respiration improvements will provide an opportunity for your body to help repair damage done from smoking. IBT will also make it easier to kick the habit and for you to enter the wellness zone.

--- The best part is, it is free. Just a few blocks of wood under your bed. Always start out at 3 or 4 inches, then work up to 6 to 8 inches incline.


Personally, I no longer have to sit at the edge of my bed before I rise. I used to "black out" upon standing. My menstrual cycle has regulated and I actually feel normal most days! I had forgotten how that felt. I haven't has this much energy last through out the day in 4 years!

Happy Healing Everyone!

6 comments:

  1. Hi Sarah

    Thank you so much for adding this to your blog.

    Your analogy of the tubing is not quite right. Instead of a U tube a O tube is used filled with water and stretched from head end of the bed to the foot end. A tiny amount of coloured salt solution is added to the pillow end and the bed is raised at the head end.

    Immediately the bed is tilted the salt solution migrates to the foot end (obvious really) But it does so in one side of the tube with the clean water flowing back up in the same side of the loop of tubing. This is reflux in the making!

    When the bed is tilted further, beyond the 4 inch incline, the salt flows down one side and causes a return flow in the salt free side. This represents the arterial flow and the venous return. The downward slat loaded side causes a positve pressure in the "arterial representation" and at the same time induces a tension / reduction in pressure in the return side, "venous representation" In the body, the salt loading takes place from evaporation of salt free water from the respiratory tract. The fluids at the surface of the lungs and the fluids that line the whole respiratory tract contain salts, sugars and other dense chemicals and minerals, so the loss of moisture from exhaling must alter the density of these fluids and reintroduce them back into the arterial side. This is where tilting the bed helps, because for gravity to assist circulation there has to be a slight imbalance in the solvent on the downward flowing side and a more dilute fluid flowing back up. The dilute fluid is maintained due to the filtration of salts from the blood by the kidneys and excretion into the urine. This is why we get limescale in toilets!

    Andrew

    A new group has been set up to discuss the merits of sleeping Inclined by raising the head of the bed six inches or 15 cm's.

    16 years of research have provided us with concrete evidence that the human body benefits from avoiding flat bed rest! This is achieved by raising the head end of the bed 6 inches or 15 cm's and is called Inclined Therapy. (I.T.) Hope you will join our group. http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=238614362210&comments

    We are seeing some convincing reports from people with ms trying I.T here on Thisisms forum: http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-8535.html
    A Poll is conducted here asking about a connection with varicose veins and CCSVI in ms. http://www.thisisms.com/ftopict-9652.html
    I.T. helping people with spinal cord injury on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3D7tBQfCxQ

    Thanks for taking the time to read this.

    Andrew K Fletcher

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sarah and family

    We have a new website now and a new forum for tracking journals to show improvements for people with ms. There is a template as a suggested format for adding a tracking journal.

    http://www.inclinedbedtherapy.com

    How did your sister find IBT?

    Best wishes

    Andrew

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  3. I have been sleeping in a inclined bed an doing me good , no more back pain more energy during the day , the problem is I have also leg pain at night for many year an the only thing that aliviated is raisr my feet, I like to know whats Flecther take on that.

    thanks
    mario

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  4. There is now a new group on facebook where people can share their own experiences of Inclined Bed Therapy

    www.facebook.com/InclinedBedTherapy

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  5. Sarah, we now have a New website up at http://inclinedbedtherapy.com which has a testimonials feature. If you could provide us with yours it would be very helpful. Thank you Andrew

    ReplyDelete