Back Pain Community

Hello and welcome!! I am sorry but I have nevre had any exsperience with an inversion table. I do think there is someone here on the board that may have.

May I ask how and whom diagmosed ya with these problems and maybe then I can give some advice?

Lori

Hello,I have tried one for a while but it did not help me. Now that is just me,my brother has one & he loves it. Everyone's back is different so it is sure worth a try,my little nephews loved to play on it. That was only if I was there! I wish you lot's of luck my brother's pain was in his neck,he had surgery for it also. This is a GREAT group of people here so feel free to come back. Pammy

Hi there,

I used to use an inversion swing religiously for my lower back. I think it provided spacing and some relief, but you must couple it with additoinal yoga type stretching as well as core strengthening if you want to ovrercome your back condition non-surgically. I ended up having surgery for my lower back, but it prolonged the inevitable and give me more movement than I would have otherwise. , I still used inversion swing even after surgery safely to give me a good stretch feel, My lower back was operated on six years ago and is in fantastic shape. Course like they say, if one knee is hurt, you favor the other, so once one is fixed the other goes bad, ergo my neck. I would say that generally an inversion swing can help lengthen your body. It is not and I repeat not ever been known to fix a persons back that I am aware of, but it is certainly a modality to add to the overall program. I think the inversion swing is better for the lower back, not as good for the neck though as it did not help my neck at all. I had my neck fused 12 weeks ago. Your neck pain may respond better to traction, but please be careful with that though and don't have it pulled too strongly.

I hope this helps. Would be happy to discuss in further if you would like.

I have 1 hearneated disc in the lumbar area and 1 degenerated. I have an inversion table, and I can't live without it. No it isn''t snake oil. It works by pulling the weight off of the discs that are giving you the problems. It also takes the pressure off of the nerves that are causing the pain. I have to use mine at leat once a day. I don't know however, how it would work in the neck area since it works by pulling with the weight of your own body, I don't know if there is enough body weight pulling on the neck area to be of help. I hope you get an answer from someone with that experience. Good luck. Redonroses

Well I have never actually used one but the concept is no joke. The nice thing about them is at the very least you are pain free for a little while. The reason I say this is once in PT they put me on one of them torture tables where they try to separate your lower half from your upper half and I remember asking them if I could just strap that to my back and take it home just like that. I felt so good when they applied the traction. The reason they work is because its really the only way to take the "weight" off your spine. I always say its like when you break your arm you can put it in a sling to rest it, if you break your leg you can use crutches to take the weight off your leg, but if you injure your spine there is no real way to take the weight off your spine. even if you sit you still have the 10 pound head sitting on the spine, and unless you have one of them spine beds if you lay down you are bound to be flexing the spine in some fashion. And this is why the concept of those tables can help, but like any thing it effects everyone different. Cant say it will cure ya, but sometimes it beats popping the happy pills to get rid of the pain, LOL.

I've had neck pain which radiated down my arm, requiring trips to physical therapy 3x aweek for 3 months on 2 occasions. I've also had lower back pain which sometimes resulted in sciatica. I'm an RN who works 12 hr shifts, walking, standing, bending, lifting, & positioning immobile patients. After 26 years of this the job has taken its toll on me. A chiropractor helped to a certain extent, but not being covered by insurance, soon became too costly. I therefore relied alot on heating pads and/or ice packs, as well as NSAIDS and muscle relaxants.

A few weeks ago I ordered an inversion table & absolutely love it. I use it for 3or4 minutes 2-3 times a day. I was gardening the other day & had not inverted yet that day. After about 20 minutes I developed sciatic pain. I went inside & hung upside down for a couple minutes, feeling my spine stretch & relax, then went back to gardening. No more sciatica. Now I make sure I hang before & after gardening; and will usually take a break to hang 1/2 way through.

It takes a little getting used to, in that as humans we don't normally invert, so initially I had to concentrate to make myself relax my muscles. Also you might feel alot of pressure in your head, but it's easy to come back up & the pressure is gone. I usually oscillate, rocking 40-80 degrees. I absolutely love my table. My husband has also had back pain for years, however it's been hard getting him to use the table routinely. He uses the teather to keep from inverting too far. He said he felt better afterward, but he's not consistant in using it.

I spoke to a back surgeon concerning inversion & he had nothing but praise for it. That eased my mind alot. And the table eases my pain alot. Definately a good investment.