Is you lower back problem a mattress problem?

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Is you lower back problem a mattress problem?

If you ask people about lower back pain, some have spent a lot of money on a new mattress hoping it was the answer to their problem. For some, it made sense to buy a mattress such as sleep number because it allows you and your spouse to have the mattress as stiff or soft as you like. Even with this ability, or when the new mattress is in your home, your lower back may still be painful in the morning.

Designing the perfect mattress for the lower back sufferer may require rethinking how a mattress should support you at night. Typical mattresses are designed to be firm in the bottom part and usually have a layer of support of cushioning on top. Others, such as the Therapedic brand use a memory foam on a platform. Typically, mattresses are either on a platform (platform bed) or on a box spring which is a platform that sits on your bed frame.

Better quality mattresses may never need rotating or flipping because the better materials do not deform like inexpensive foams do, so what you spend on the mattress itself can result in one that requires less maintenance (flipping or rotating).

After the new mattress arrives, many continue to experience lower and upper back pain at night or in the morning. Sometimes, the problem is what you are putting on the mattress or in other words, you.

If you body mechanics are compromised, and during the day, you are tightening up because your gait and overall body mechanics are problematic, your mattress unfortunately will not fix this. If that sounds like you, it is time to see a professional such as a chiropractor who will look at your body mechanics and figure out why you hurt which can ultimately help you sleep better on any mattress. Often the reason for the pain is not where you are experiencing pain, so an outside opinion from the right professional can be both helpful and enlightening.

For those who have a mechanical problem, the typical mattress will support the hips and the shoulders and can make it difficult to find a comfortable position when sleeping. The book Cheating Mother Nature, what you need to know to beat chronic pain explains it this way; people who have chronic back and joint pain, sometimes referred to as polymyalgia are distorted, or look like a strand of DNA, with the hips distorted and the upper body distorted in compensation.

posture helix

This distortion chronically strains the lower back and even the upper back joints, as well as the ribs and the extremities (arms and legs). As explained in Cheating Mother Nature, that matches much of the criteria for Fibromyalgia’s tender points.

If you support the shoulders and the hips with the mattress, the person who is experiencing this phenomenon will have difficulty finding a comfortable side and will feel kinked up in the morning with most standard design mattresses, because you are increasing the strain on the hip joints with the pressure from the mattress support system being placed on the hips and shoulders.

A new mattress design being developed by Eclipse, manufacturers of brands such as Eclipse and Therapedic, and Eastman House rethinks how you support the body to remove the strain of a typical mattress. I was fortunate enough to help design the loading specifications for a new mattress which will compete favorably with Sealy and Serta brand mattresses as well as Tempurpedic for those who experience pain or need a better nighttime recovery experience, at a competitive price.

Last December, a prototype was given to me to try for a month and the good news is, it works. Chiropractic is a physical job and often, just like many of our patients, my body aches because of the model discussed in this article of torsion. Unlike my standard mattress, this mattress allows my shoulders and hips to sink in, while a brand new foam design helps support the rest of my body. The design is great for those suffering from Fibromyalgia, Polymyalgia and many other mechanical pain phenomenon.

Lower back pain has different causes, and it is established that a better sleeping pattern helps reduce back pain during the day, something Fibromyalgia sufferers have noted as being part of the syndrome. This mattress can help sufferers of the condition sleep better, something that is connected to the intensity of pain. Pain is reduced when sleeping on a mattress that allows the body to assume its shape, rather than trying to force your body into support by placing pressure on the shoulder and hips.

This design is great for athletes as well, and is likely to be marketed as a sports recovery mattress. For the same reasons of spinal torsion as noted above, a mattress that allows the body to assume its normal shape will allow for a more restful sleep and in the case of athletes, healing takes place at night. A more restful sleep is vitally important for athletes who want to get the best rest during their down times.

While a mattress will not solve all your back problems, the right mattress will help you by allowing you to sleep better, which helps reduce pain. Athletes will likely perform better with the right rest the night before and a more accommodative mattress design is important for your wellbeing and for your performance to be at optimal levels.

A chiropractor should be consulted for those with chronic joint pain since their expertise with the musculoskeletal system can help you sleep even better, while helping you live a better quality of life with less pain. Often one chiropractor can solve the pain in multiple joints if the mechanical distortions in the body are properly addressed.

Read Cheating Mother Nature, what you need to know to beat chronic pain available through Amazon.com and other booksellers.