Inversion Therapy can Change Your Life.
I’ve had a lot of people ask about Inversion Therapy and what it does.
What it is and What it does
If you’ve been in my office in the past several months, you will have noticed the inversion table sitting prominently inside the door. Basically, on this table, you set your height, hook your feet into the bar at the bottom, raise your arms over your head and lean back. If it’s set properly, you should have a gentle tip backwards until the bar stops you from going any farther over.
This table I have is safe for people up to 300 lbs. but some of the others I have seen only go to 250 lbs. I usually recommend no more than 5 minutes like this because of the blood pressure that goes toward the head. You will feel it and not want to stay over too much more than that. When you are done, bring your arms back down to your waist and you should slowly tip back up to the upright position. At that point, take your time and let your body get used to being upright again.
Why use Inversion Therapy?
There are a couple of great benefits.
1. It reverses the forces of gravity so muscles can stretch out and the spine can decompress. This opens up the discs and allows new fluid into them through diffusion and blood vessels. As more of the spine loosens up, the fascia can stretch slightly and loosen some of the adhesions that develop.
2. There’s a structure in the lower back called Batson’s Venous Plexus. It is a larger area where several veins come together. These veins are the only area in the body where the veins don’t have valves to help push the blood up toward the heart. Thus, there is pooling of used blood in this grouping of veins and toxins build up there. These toxins cause a lot of lower back pain and need to be drained. Inversion allows this venous plexus to drain to the heart and exchange the blood.
Warning about Inversion…
Inversion is not for everyone. If you have a lot of extra weight, it can be hazardous to invert. Those who have hypertension can have problems with it. It can be hard on the ankles, so if you have weak ankles it’s not for you. If you have a really painful lower back, definitely don’t go there. Going over doesn’t hurt but coming back up is crazy painful.
Kind of a long article, but it gives you the basics about how I feel on the subject of inversion. Here’s to your health.
Dr. Roy