Are you Inclined To Try This Therapy ?
I recently started to look into “inclined therapy”. It is something I’d heard about several years ago but it kind of fell off my radar so a connection with Andrew Fletcher on Twitter brought it back to the forefront.
Inclined therapy is simply tilting the bed so that the head end is 15 cm or 6 inches higher than the foot end providing a level but tilted bed, hence the name Inclined Therapy. You can do this very cheaply by building up your bed with blocks of wood. It has been used very successfully for varicose veins but also with Parkinson’s disease and more recently with MS . It seems that something very simple has wide-ranging health benefits.
Inclined Therapy is advised by doctors for people with decreasing respiratory function but it is generally not recognised and Andrew is forced to do his own experiments.
Are there any difficulties with it ? The first 2 weeks of Inclined Therapy can cause aching in the spine and a stiff neck, aching muscles also. If you could revert back to sleeping flat it may prove one way or the other how much inclined therapy is or is not doing for you.
The next section is from a forum post I foujnd from Andrew
In February 1996 I began taking part in Andrew Fletcher’s Experiment to assess what would be gained by sleeping at an angle.
As instructed I raised my bed by six inches at the head and expected to slide to the other end. Fortunately that did not happen. But after a few weeks I started to notice a change in my multiple sclerosis symptoms.
I first of all noticed a significant change in my circulation. The right foot was no longer uncomfortably hot during the evenings, and the signs of impending varicose veins in my legs disappeared.Walking became much easier, especially after I tried using a dehumidifier in the bedroom to control the moisture levels in the atmosphere.
Another very pleasing improvement was in the use of my right hand, I began to write more legibly and to handle cups and cutlery with greater ease.
In September 1996 I mystified my optician when a routine eye test showed a marked improvement in the MS damaged right eye. Six months later more visual improvement was found.
This was an unusual occurrence and could only be explained by the action of a healing process in the optic nerve. The optician was very interested in Andrew’s experiment and contacted him to find out more!
Other members of my family have also been involved in the experiment. We raised my teenage daughter’s bed by the same angle in an attempt to alleviate a life long insomnia problem.
To our astonishment she slept soundly the very first night!It goes without saying that we shall not be reverting to sleeping horizontally, but intend to continue using Andrew’s healthier alternative.
Endnote from Andrew
Pauline’s eyesight improved so much that she is now legally entitled to drive a car without wearing spectacles.
Pauline and Joyce both had supposedly iriversible optic nerve damage caused by long term progressive ms.
Conclusion
The Dead Sea Scrolls Translations show that ancient beds may have been tilted. I have also been informed that in Canada there is a very old fort that holds two gigantic sloping beds that can sleep 12 people. The answer as to whether changing your bed could assist your gradual improvements is yes, having a slope on a bed from head to toe is what we should be trying to achieve.
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