Inversion therapy may be good for some and a temporary relief of pain, but it is not "cure all that ends all" for chronic back pain.

Not only is it not the cure, but it can be an extremely dangerous thing to do for many, many people.

Without full knowledge of a person's health and medical circumstances, including insidious health issues that a person is unaware of going on within his/her body, it could potentially cause serious harm and be fatal.

Below is a list of serious conditions that a person may or may not have or be aware that they have and they should never, ever use inversion therapy.

Like anything that can affect your health, talk to your doctor before you start using an inversion table. This is important because certain medications and health conditions may make using an inversion table unsafe.

obese
eye conditions that include:
1. have or ever had a detached retina
2. have or ever have had retinal tears that where repaired
3. glaucoma
4. cataracts or "seeding" cataracts
5. increased eye pressure that is being watched for the possible development of glaucoma
6. floaters in your eyes
heart conditions that would include
1..high blood pressure
2. circulation problems
3. angina
4. atrial fibrilation
5. mitral valve prolapse
stroke, have had one or are at high risk for a stroke, including having had a TIA, or minor stroke
any type of implant devise such as
1. plates, screws etc. to repair broken bones
2. aneurysm clips
3. hardware from having had a spinal fusion
broken any bones in limbs, feet, ankles, shoulder, ribs, etc.
every had tendons, ligaments torn
problems in the past with achilles tendon
problems with plantar fasciitis
seizure disorder
osteoporosis
history of middle ear infection
history of eye infections
have or have had a hernia and it was repaired
pregnant or could be pregnant or trying to get pregnant
spinal cord injuries or prior history of spinal cord injuries
Many, many medications.

Any one of those listed above are all contraindications for the use of inversion therapy and many,many of them are conditions that a patient may be unaware that they have until it is too late and they have used an inversion table.

Would seem that after looking at that list that the risks of using an inversion table are far to high to do so, especially for a potential temporary relief of pain that does not fix the problem.

Of course inversion therapy is not for everyone. It is for folks that have had and continue to suffer from back and core pain and of course painful sciatica, although I truly believe that if folks would start an inversion therapy routine prior to injury that their spinal health and over all flexibility would be improved, their spines would not have the chance to get decompressed and then pinch those nerves of where the discs are compressed. Inversion therapy is nothing more than stretching muscles that are harder to reach and stretch without using inversion therapy. I think just about everyone has agreed that stretching is good, right? All I know is that my sciatica and back pain, before and after my back surgery was eliminated once I started doing inversion therapy. I have had laser eye surgery, ear infections, spinal surgery, broken bones, the list goes on and inversion therapy is the ONLY way I have found to keep my back, core, hips, thighs and abs pain free, loose and flexible. Like anything new that you work into your life you have to acclimate your body to the change, go slow and work up to a point where you can invert longer and for more time. Anyone can spout facts and figures that they cut and past from some other site and talk negatively about the benefits of anything but I am a living, breathing back surgery survivor and inversion therapy, as I have said and will continue to say has saved my life and made me vital again in my life, with my family and gave me back so much freedom that had been taken away with my back problems that I had for over 20 years. As with anything, do research and see if it's right for you.

The information that I posted did not come from any "cut and paste" from any information I found on line.

The information came directly from my Opthamologist, my primary care physician, my son's cardiologist, and my daughter's sports medicine orthopedic surgeon.

The list that makes inversion therapy a contradiction to use is extremely long, with many very common health issues that people may or may not have. May or may not know they have, and make the risk of using an inversion table very risky to use.

For you, it may have worked well, you are fortunate that it has and that you have had no adverse affects in using it or do not suffer from anything on the list that makes the inversion table a contraindication to use.

The important issue is the risk of known or unknown health issues and people be fully aware of the risks that can come from using an inversion table.

I have not seen the extensive list that I posted from top rate, world known doctors for reasons not to use an inversion table, ever appear with the websites that advertise the use of the inversion table or in any of the one sided studies that where done by the companies that make the inversion tables.

As always, thorough investigation, research and always checking with all of the doctors that you see, is a vital, important thing to do.

As always with various machines that come on the market that claim to "cure or prevent spinal surgery", it is buyer beware and if there are no documented studies that have been done and accepted studies by the medical profession done and they have not appeared in reputable, well known medical journals, or all you can find is studies done by he manufacturer of the machines; it is best to very wary of the machines and wait till safety studies have been done and there is documented proof that the claims are true.
If the studies are done by the manufacturer of the machines, then it becomes obvious that they are slanted in their favor and not studies to be believed and trusted.

Fran

Google: inversion therapy online health mart : to read a real persons success story that isn't made up or a product of an over active imagination or based on conjecture or the opinions of someone who is showing that all they do is read and regurgitate opinions rather than helpful and practical solutions to sciatica, back pain and general spinal ailments. You gotta get in the game and stop riding the bench Fran. It's a lot different when you actually hurt and NEED relief more than anything else in the world, all you want too do is feel better. Take it easy on us, we just wanna live and prosper like anyone wants!!!

I know quite well what it is like to be in pain, I've had to spinal surgeries in the past 2 years.

What I also am fully aware of is to not fall for advertising of various machines to ease and "cure" back pain and to be fully aware of the risks of getting involved in those attempts.

It's called buyer beware, read the fine print, verify what you read on line with unbiased information and not from sites that are attempting to sell you products and use their biased information and studies.

I do not "regurgiate opinions", my post is of information is from well respected medical professionals in various fields of medicine that have been forced to care for patients who should not have used inversion tables of any kind and should have thoroughly checked out the information and checked with the health care professionals that they use.

I do not post information that is in accurate nor do I post information that suggests people go out and buy equipment to try and ease their pain, nor do I post websites of places for people to go to buy equipment either.
Nor do I tell them to go check out a website that sells the merchandise you are praising and tell them to read about people's success with the product.

That is by far, some of the most biased information one could read.

Helpful information is always welcome to members and to those that are in pain from various spinal conditions.

I have been doing that for more than a year now, and the information I provide is from experience, medical knowledge and from various medical professionals that I personally know.

Backwards attempts at advertising products for members to buy, and directing them to sites that sell the product that you praise is not a helpful solution to anyone.

"Take it easy on us, we just wanna live and prosper like anyone wants!!!"

That is exactly why I continue to post on this forum and post information that is medically sound and correct for people to do, to try and to seek he medical care that they need. I don't tell them to go to websites that are selling products that are medically sound and have medical verification that they are safe to use.

Fran

Why are you so guarded and negative Fran. By the writing in your last post I can only assume that you woke up this morning and your feet hit the ground. That means you're alive Fran. You get to breath another day and smell the world around you and talk to the people you love. So many things can be overcome by simply believing it is so. I don't care what you've been through or how bad you think it is if you think positive the power of your subconscious mind can accomplish anything. You have to feed it with your conscious mind though. Whatever you think, negative, positive or what ever feeds the subconscious and that's what dictates what happens in your life. Did you even google the site and read this man's story? Probably not...

I had been to doctors and through treatments and therapies and physical tribulations and none of that has held me back or caused me to give up. Nothing you can put on me will deter me from excelling in my health and well being. If you would give up the negativity I think you would find that many things in your life will improve.

I don't care if you think I'm trying to sell anything or whatever else you're conjuring in your trouble state of being, I HAVE HAD ALL THE SUCCESS AND GOOD HEALTH IN THE WORLD AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE I SPENT A MEASLY $175.00 AND GOT MYSELF A DOORWAY MOUNTED INVERSION THERAPY SYSTEM!!! Nothing you can say, none of the false doubts your trying to poison me with can change that. I am strong and I'm not afraid and I have all the confidence in the world, all the peace, all the prosperity and it's all because my back feels better now than it has in 20 years and it's all because of stretching with inversion therapy and a lot because I read the info. on that website that you accuse me of pushing.

What's the difference if I praise an online wellness site, ebay, google, whatever, people do that everyday and people have success with many things every day and want to tell people that. I can't help it that you can't get your peace in your heart. I will pray for you and feel compassion for you although all you have is angst and disapproval toward me. I'm not afraid anymore. Not of what you think or what anyone thinks because I have me health and that is very, very significant.

berzerkerca,

I am not going to continue to posting in this thread or continue commenting on your insults hurled towards me or defend myself in any way.

I have no need to be part of this with you.

What I will say is that the "power of positive thinking" can go a long way to improve ones health and recover from injury, treatment for many, many disease processes and recover from various types of surgery etc.

What it can not do is perform miracles, or miracle cures for anyone.

There is also much to be said for the "placebo affect as well". It is well documented in many medical studies.

I do not need you to pray for me for any reason.

What is clear that when one comes on a medical site and starts praising the use of a medical devise and claims fantastic cures for treatment of a medical problem that exists on a particular forum, there are people that will believe that it will cure them and make them well.

Whether it will or not is up for debate as there are no accepted medical studies to verify that the product does what the manufacturer claims it will do or what the poster is claiming it will do.

What needs to be posted along with a thread about some product to cure various medical issues, whether it be spinal or any other medical issues, is a full unbiased post of information on the product.

That would include

the risks of using the product

the contraindications for those that may consider using the product

the documented medical risk for people with various medical conditions

the lack of medically accepted studies that verify that product does work

the risk of making your medical issues worse by using the product

The risk that delayed medical treatment for the medical issues can complicate the medical issue the person is suffering with.

making sure that those that read the post are aware that they are being directed to sites that sell the product and the information they will read there is nothing more than biased info and a site to sell the product.

Without any of that information, any person reading the post can and will be led astray on finding information, being able to properly research the information and not know that they should check all of the information they are reading with their doctors.
Or, it will delay the person from seeking needed medical care.

I posted the needed information because you didn't post it. The medical risks with the conditions that are known to be contradictory in using the product of your post is extensive and can have dire results for many, many people.

One time on an inversion table with someone who has had problems with their retinas, or floaters in their eyes could result in torn or detached retinas and, without immediate eye surgery, the patient will be left blind.

If someone has a weakened blood vessel wall and doesn't even know it, which is fairly common, the person could have a ruptured aneurysm and die while on it, or have a stroke.

If someone has already had a stroke or even a mini stroke, they could have another one on he stroke.

Osteoporosis and the use of an inversion table could result and breaking bones. More people don't know they have osteoporosis than do have it.

Many people have atrial fibrilation and don't know it. Inversion table could cause a stroke in that case.

More people walk around with a mitral valve prolapse and don't know it than do. An inversion table could kill those people.

There are risks in everything that we do, including surgery for spinal problems.

The risks in using an inversion table can be very high. People need to be aware of the risks of all things that we do, and that includes the inversion table that you praise.

Only with good solid information, and that includes more than just your praise for the devise and sites that praise, advertise and sell the devise, is what people need.

Biased praise for anything is dangerous, which is why I posted the information that I did.

IT WAS NOT A PERSONAL ATTACK ON YOU, IT WAS A COUNTER BALANCE TO YOUR POST THAT PROVIDED THE PROPER INFORMATION THAT NEEDED TO BE ADDED TO YOUR POST FOR THE SAFETY OF THOSE THAT WHERE GOING TO READ IT.

With that, this is my last post to this thread.

I have no interest in continuing defending myself or arguing with you.
Nor do I have an interest in any further dialog on the subject.

I have posted what I have, stand by what I have said, and know that my information in medically sound, and comes from well respected, world renowned medical professionals.

Fran

Inversion therapy can and will help with back pain. I am living proof. 5 years after surgery my back feels better than it practically ever has. I am healthy, strong, flexible, loose and limber. My mind is clear because I'm not always in pain and hurting which leaves it to concentrate on other areas of my life that had been being ignored or passed by. INVERSION THERAPY=GOOD BACK HEALTH!!!

GOOGLE: INVERSION THERAPY ONLINE HEALTH MART to read what I read and to see how Inversion Therapy can truly help you with your sciatica, back pain and post operation health. Take care!!!

I use inversion therapy many years now for myself and my clients but only after I made sure i is the right thing to do for each individual person because there are risks involved as well. In recent years I constantely reduced the angle of inversion and reached the best results with a maximum of 30 degrees. More than that means an enourmous stress for the ligaments of the sacro-iliac area which can be a reason for the problems to return and potentially get worse.
In my opinion the pain reduction due to the relaxations of the muscles that follows the stretching (inversion) should not be misinterpreted as cure but as temporary result that can allow the body to self-realign doing normal movements. However there is a possibiltiy that due to less pain we also do movements that are actually dangerous and cause ot favor misalignments and we would not do them if we are in pain. This needs to be considered when using inversion therapy. I do recommend some form of alignment therapy and self therapy (Osteopathy, Dorn Method etc.) together with inversion therapy and also the avoidance of potentially harmfull movements.

The point you seem to be missing is that the reason that there is less pain and in turn a tendency for more movements is because the inversion therapy is working to make the person more limber, less knotted up and in turn happier and healthier. What you also seem to be missing is that if you have painful sciatica (like I did), I mean sciatica so bad and constant that it makes you want to cry, what does it matter how you are made to feel better??? As long as you do. All inversion therapy does is to let your muscles of you core, (the abs, hips, thighs, buttocks) relax and become spasm free (how they are meant to be in their natural state) and when this desired effect is obtained then these once knotted muscles will stop pulling the pelvis out of alignment and it can naturally go back into it's perfect alignment as nature intended. THAT'S THE DESIRED RESULT AFTER ALL, ISN'T IT??? All I know is that inversion therapy is just a fancy name for stretching. With inversion therapy the blessing is that it let's you invert and stretch muscles that most people have no idea how to stretch without it, and quite frankly it is nearly impossible to stretch certain muscles (the ones that need to be stretched in order to cure sciatica factually) so you can talk degrees and drop other lingo to make things more complicated but even you admit readily that it works very well with many of the people that try it and need this relief to help them live happier, healthier and pain free lives. When my sciatica used to act up, I didn't care if smashing my thumb with a hammer would have helped, I would have done that because sciatica is so crippling and painful when it occurs and when your core is in spasm and out of alignment it affects your whole body negatively because of all the nerves that meet at the base in the lower back area of your spine. Past injuries or spinal traumas cause these muscles to constrict and spasm and pull the lower back and pelvis out of natural alignment. Hell even sitting to much can do it! All I'm saying is that inversion therapy is the best way that I have found to combat the negative effects of these injuries, let the lower back and spine go back into their natural state of being how nature intended them to be and if the pelvis is aligned and straight and not tilted or twisted because it's pulled out of alignment by these tight muscles, this is what relieves sciatica. When the pelvis get twisted it affects the natural path of the sciatic nerve and this is what causes sciatica in the first place. It the pelvis can be consistently made to be straight and free and sciatica goes away. Isn't this the desired effect??? There is no need to complicate things so much. Any doctor, physical therapist or practically any medical professional will tell you that stretching is good for you, right? So why are you saying that stretching the core (the most important part of our bodies) is not a good thing??? You even admit that it works to obtain the desired effect (freedom of pain) right? Isn't that the only thing that truly matters. Isn't that why I posted this entry? It is!!! If you suffer from sciatica inversion therapy gives you a method, one of the only methods I might ad to let you take your life back from the jaws of crippling sciatic pain and live a fuller, happier and more pain free existence so if that's a bad thing I'm very sorry but I don't see it that way. If you'd like. Another great web page to read can be found if you GOOGLE: SCIATICA ONLINE HEALTH MART : perhaps this will help you to further see how inversion therapy isn't a cure for cancer, or a cure for the common cold and it won't make you rich beyond your wildest dreams but what it will do if you maintain an inversion therapy routine is HELP YOU TO FEEL LESS PAIN! Isn't that what's really important after all. I dealt with pain myself for 20 years and inversion therapy took it away. That's all I know...

I think you got my message not totally as I meant it. Inversion is good however not in all cases.
If less pain leads to self-realignment due to relaxed muscles perfect. But if the relaxation does not lead to realignment some bad movements can increase the problem. I think it is best to work on several levels and look at things from different angles. Inversion with less degrees (at least in our research)showed the same positive result as inversion with high degrees but means less stress for the ligaments around the sacrum.
I am happy that it helped you and I am definitely in favor of inversion in general. The potential peoblems I wrote about counts in less than 10 percent anyway but the are there.
Thanks for promoting a good pain approach and sharing your self therapy experiences.

I'm a brain aneurysm survivor - got one while working out when I was 21 years old. It happened when I bent down to pick up a towel after using the chest excercise machine. I'm now in my 40's and came down with spinal stenosis. After receiving a few steroid shots in my back I'm almost back to semi-normal. I really thought this is the way to go...but reminded myself of the pressure that you get when you're upside down. If you have an unknown weak area in your body... inversion therapy can speed up finding it for ya. Be very careful using any device where you build up that much pressure any where in your body. Stretching excercises - propping pillows under my knees when sleeping on back...have helped ease my lower lumbar spinal stenosis issue. It's not a miracle worker - but it won't kill me.

Laredog, thanks for posting and stating what I have continued to say about the inversion table.

Far to many unknown conditions exist in the body that none of us are aware of or have symptoms of.

By using an inversion table with the wrong, undiagnosed medical problems, one can do serious harm to the body and/or die from complications of using it.

Man was not meant to hang upside down, we cam out of the trees and hanging by our feet, eons ago.

Fran

Even though I had a clip on my anterior communicating artery - I really wanted to do this because I felt stretching out the back with inversion would be the best thing for my spinal stenosis. I believe those folks who are getting good results - but there's got to be a better and safer way. I had zero warning when my aneurysm came on when I was 21 years old. As painful as my spinal stenosis was....the aneurysm was two weeks in the hospital, big horse shoe scar on the right side of my head and two years to get my life back to semi-normal. With all that being said, I was one of the lucky/fortunate ones. Thanks for posting the word of caution on inversion therapy Fran.....all sides need to be heard. And even knuckleheads like myself need a reminder.

Thank you,

Larry J.

Larry,

I don't think "knuckleheads" is the correct word to use.

Spine pain, especially from nerve compression is some of the worst pain known to man.

Desperation to ease and/or get rid of the pain is what those of us with spinal issues are looking for.

The fear of spinal surgery keeps many from having surgery and searching for some kind of non-surgical solution to the problem.

Also as a society, people are looking for a quick fix as well.

Most importantly though, there are the scammers out there that are praying on those with spinal pain, especially since spine problems are such a huge problem in this country.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry are out there with some kind of something that they claim will ease the pain, "cure the problem" fix you so you won't have to have surgery and then the ones that claim that their laser surgery will do the job as well.

It's take your money and run from the patient and the patient is generally out of luck in any pain relief, pain cure, and many, many times out huge sums of money as well.

Many of us are on narcotic pain meds and our thought process may not always be clear enough to realize that what we are hearing, spending money on and trying to avoid surgery, is nothing more than a scam or a very risky attempt to avoid that surgery and may very well kill you.

There is the old saying "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is".
It applies to almost every one of these infomercials we see on TV about some kind of apparatus that will "cure your back problems for good", "prevent surgery" etc. As well as the fancy Laser spine surgeries that want their money up front.

If cures for spine problems where that easy, quick and successful, very few surgeries would be done. There would be medical peer review studies done on all of this and everyone would know about them.

Instead we find various ads on the net, various sites to go to for the equipment to buy and tons and tons of testimonials by people posted on the websites about how wonderful the product is, there surgery is etc.

Take all of that with a ton of salt and not a grain. They are nothing more than free advertising for the products and no proof that they are safe.

When someone posts on forums about one of these products and does nothing more than rave about it, argue when someone posts the risks of the product and the dangers of using it, one starts to think they are posting to advertise the product only.

One must also remember that when you go to spine sites and see post after post of people with all kinds of problems with their spinal surgery, that it made things worse or failed, one must also remember the following.

Those with successful spine surgeries, move on in their life and no longer post on spine sites, usually. There are a few, like myself that continue to do so, to show the positive sides of surgery.
Those with the success are to busy living to keep posting.

successful spine surgery depends on many, many factors which include.

The expertise of the surgeon

The correct surgery done for the correct reason

The individual body's ability to heal

The patient fully cooperating with the post op care

The patient fully cooperating with the post op physical therapy and continued exercises for the rest of their life

The patient's full understanding of what the surgery was for, what the surgery will do and not do. what it will correct and how it will ease and or cure the pain

The unknown. The surgeon can only operate on what exists and can not predict the future, what will or will not happen to the spine in the future and will the patient continue to develop further problems down the road.

There are far more success stories with spine surgery than failures. You just don't read about them on spine sites, as those people have moved on in their life.

One also has to remember that once there is surgery on the spine, the spine becomes more delicate and needs care to keep it from further problems.
By remembering that and dealing with those aspects, one can return to a life without difficulty.

It is also important to remember that conservative treatments for spine issues, may not cure the problem but rather only delay the need for surgery.

Larry, have you talked with your spine surgeon or any spine surgeon about doing some minimal type of surgery to relieve the nerve compression with your stenosis?

Has laminotomy been suggested?

Fran

Fran,

I'm one of the lucky ones (so far) - the steroid shots in my lower back (which I had little faith in) did the trick in getting me back on the road to recovery. My Spinal Stenosis came on March 2008 and put me down, lying on the floor for 5-6 weeks. The Dr. said it can come back but usually not as severe as the 1st episode. I do my best with stretching, dieting, losing weight, working on a better posture and avoiding activities that might bring back the pain. The little things can help you live a better life. I corrected how I sleep for 6 - 8 hours a day by simply placing a folded pillow under my knees. Doing this helped reduce some of the strain or weight that was being placed on my lower back while I slept. I have feeling in my toes again and over all I'm doing pretty good.

You're right - the pain was absolutely horrible. The drugs they gave only reduced the pain by maybe 5% if that. It took a lot to get up and sit down in a chair and when I did the pain came shooting thru my leg and put me down on the ground in tears within 15-25 seconds. As you can imagine, going to the bathroom was a nightmare. Thank god my wife is an RN and didn't get too freaked out.

With all that being said, my heart goes out to anybody with spinal issues. Me stating "knuckleheads' was just poking fun at myself, nothing else. I'm very loose with words and it wasn't meant to be taken seriously by anybody.

We all want something to help us out with our ailments. As I stated in my previous comment, please be very cautious with inversion therapy. If you have a weakness in your body - turning yourself upside down on your head might eventually bring on something that you had no idea was there. There are quite a few folks out there with undiagnosed aneurysms. Now these aneurysms may never develop into anything - and you might die of something else when you're 100. Now put those folks on table that flips them upside down increasing pressure on those weak spots: Will the dam break...or will it hold? Are you willing to find out?

Take care - keep the faith and good healing to you all.

- Larry J. aka Laredog -

I can appreciate what Larry has said especially that "all sides" need to be heard. Fran I think is trying way to hard to dis-credit inversion therapy. It does work and it is not only the cheapest but also the safest to an informed person.

There are some conditions to do with the eyes, heart and brain that make sustained periods of an inverted posture being a health risk. However the majority of people do not have these conditions and thats who we are talking about benefiting here. All the medical hype about increase risk of strokes are hogwash. Who really has something to lose when it comes to Inversion Therapy? Chiros and med docs, thats who. Whether you decide to fork over the 2 to 4 hundred for a table or hang from bars at the local playground(not nearly as comfy but doable and efficient). The thing to remember here people is 'gravity', sure its dangerous...when you are high above ground. Its pretty safe to since we dont wanna float up into space either;)

I guess you could always keep popping pills or getting injections or surgerys. Why anyone would support such invasive, expensive and more harmfull/dangerous alternatives is insanity to me. You go ahead and have faith in what your "world renowned" doctors say. Im always gonna stick to the informed natural approach. "Medicine" is ignorance. Treat the source of the problem...not the symptom!

I know there will be a lot of backlash on this from the majority of would be posters on here. I would be happy if I just helped even 1 person not get all tied up in other's fear. God helps thoughs who help themselves. Myself and Berzerkerca are two examples that it works. If you are a person with a severe condition that doesnt allow being upside down, this isnt for you and you need to keep looking..theres always a way.

God bless all of you and lets start taking responsibility for our own health. Research Inversion/Decompression therapy for yourself with intellegence of your own and make the informed choice. Good luck to everyone!!

Because789,

You think I am trying to hard to discredit inversion therapy?

Check the list below that is a full list of all the contraindications that would prevent someone from using inversion therapy if they where made aware of them.

The list is quite extensive and includes, what I would guess, a huge number of the world population.

Sorry if you disagree with this list or see it as my attempt to discredit inversion therapy.

But like any other treatment for anything, a person thinking of using it, or anyone in the general population needs to be aware of any and all risks. No one should ever attempt any kind of treatment without fully checking out the risks, contraindications, first.

If you truly think that the majority of people do not have these risks, you are really living in a dream world. These risks are very very real to a fair majority of the population.

CONTRAINDICATIONS FOR USING INVERSION THERAPY

obese
eye conditions that include:
1. have or ever had a detached retina, I personally know 15 people who have
2. have or ever have had retinal tears that where repaired, I know more than 50 people who have including my husband
3. glaucoma. know to many people to even list
4. cataracts or "seeding" cataracts.again no far to many people including myself
5. increased eye pressure that is being watched for the possible development of glaucoma, too many people to list including myself
6. floaters in your eyes. The majority of people over the age of 50 have floaters, including myself
heart conditions that would include
1..high blood pressure. many, many people over age 50 are on high blood pressure medication, including my hubby and most people I know over age 50
2. circulation problems, many, many people
3. angina, more people than one actually believes
4. atrial fibrilation, one of the most common heart conditions
5. mitral valve prolapse, many, many people are undiagnosed with this until it presents with serious health issues, including my son who was diagnosed at age 29, after having a minor stroke. as has the famous patriots football player, Teddy Bruschi
stroke, have had one or are at high risk for a stroke, including having had a TIA, or minor stroke
any type of implant devise such as
1. plates, screws etc. to repair broken bones. half the local HS sports teams across the country, including both of my grown children, my husband and many others
2. aneurysm clips, not as uncommon as you might think and commonly used in brain surgery,
3. hardware from having had a spinal fusion
broken any bones in limbs, feet, ankles, shoulder, ribs, etc.
every had tendons, ligaments torn
problems in the past with achilles tendon, runners have this problem all the time and those with spinal problems can be prone to this because they don't stand, and walk correctly.
problems with plantar fasciitis. the most common reason for foot pain, including myself, my son and my daughter
seizure disorder. far more common than most people think
osteoporosis . very serious and most people are unaware of having it until they have had broken bones and are finally checked for it
history of middle ear infection
history of eye infections
have or have had a hernia and it was repaired. far from uncommon, one of the most common surgeries done.
pregnant or could be pregnant or trying to get pregnant
spinal cord injuries or prior history of spinal cord injuries
Many, many medications.

It really looks like the majority of the population of the world will fit into one of the above listed categores, whether they know about the medical problems or are at high risk for them, or are just undiagnosed.

Listing the contraindications for use of inversion therapy and making members aware of of the serious risks is providing important information for members to be aware of.

You may see it as an attempt to discredit inversion therapy, I see it as something that is equal to "informed consent", being aware of all the risks of inversion therapy before getting involved with it, being able to make an informed decision.

You are doing nothing more than "singing the praises of" inversion therapy and not providing the full story. It is far from the safe treatment that you make it out to be.

I would also do the same thing if someone asked about the risks of spinal surgery, steroid injections, or anything else that I had the information on.

Nothing comes without risks. What one needs to have is all the information available to make an informed decision. One must be able to understand and evaluate the risk/benefit ration. One can only do that when one is well informed about the risks and the benefits of any kind of treatment.
Just saying what you have about inversion therapy, gives the false impression that there are no risks or very, very few risks and that is far from the truth.

Fran

Hello again,
Well Fran I am not dismissing your (and by 'your' I mean the list you got from other's) list of contraindications. Im mearly saying its far too frightfull! I myself have suffered from several of them and I was fine. Thank you for re-itterating what I was already saying about doing research and making an informed decision. Perhaps you need to re-read my previous post??

It is necessary to present all potential risks to any treatment, but it can be done without bebunking it all together. That is the issue I had with your approach. These forum readers do not need to be babysat by you. Be helpful if you want by presenting the information that you have honestly, in this case you read somewhere online from doctors about these risks. People can and should decide for themselves if something is right for them or not without manipulation.

We havnt even talked about the fact that kids do this at the playground all the time and the worst that could happen is they fall off, which does not happen with a table. Yes later on in life some people develop "conditions" and thoughs are the "some" that shouldnt do inversion. Not everybody is so fragile that we can't handle extra blood going to upper extremeties which in itself is very beneficial (more blood/oxygen to the brain = good). Also, you do not have to go 90 degrees everytime. You have the option to start slow at say 20 or 30 degrees for 1 or 2 mins. if its uncomfortable and work your way up. Its not really all that scary as you have the easy ability to go right back up at any time.

The only point that you made and I concur with that I havnt already stated, is the risk of someone that may have an aneurysm waiting to happen. This is very rare and should not be used to scare off the majority of people from a natural treatment. I believe surgery is a whole lot scarier. People know themselves, if not they really should invest more time doing so. Otherwise let fran here tell you what to do and not do.

Look, its really simple. This is a very...very effective and safe treatment for most people. However, there are risks for some and anyone considering this needs to find out if they fall in the "some" catagory. Im here stressing this fact because I waisted a whole month of extreme pain and no work after I found out about this treatment by listening to people that sounded just like...you guessed it! lol It was worth the risk for me and Im so glad I made the "informed" and right decision to go for it. It was right for me, is it right for you? Only you should have the final say on that question.

Ok fran, I know you can't let me have the last word...its just not in you lol. I might let you have it since I have said pretty much everything I need to and I get tired of repeating myself. Here's to every one's good health, natural healing and again...God bless!