We all have a habit of sleeping on a flat bed. And it is like a tradition we are following since so many years without knowing the reason behind a flat bed.
But a mechanical engineer named Andrew Fletcher has found that raising a bed about 6 inches or 5 degree on the head side has many advantageous effect on circulatory system, respiratory system, leg ulcer, migraine, vericose vein, spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and many more.
The raise may depend upon the length of the bed.
The entire bed should be sloppy and not just the head end.
How to raise a bed ?
Elevating bed is very simple and doesn't require costly things.
You can use bed raisers easily available in market
Or the simplest thing is you can use bricks, blocks of wood or even pile of books.
How does it work?
Inclined bed therapy is based on the concept of increased blood and lymphatic circulation due to gravity.
Benefits
- Vericose vein and edema
In case of vericose vein, the pressure inside the vein is higher than the surrounding tissues so there is outflow of fluid from the veins leading to swelling in the surrounding tissues.
The traditional treatment of vericose vein and edema is elevating level of legs which causes outflow of edematous fluid towards upper body leading to decreased swelling.
But when the person gets up, the fluid gets back in the limbs and the swelling is back.
In case of IBT the pressure inside the venous system is reduced causing backflow of edematous fluid towards the circulatory system leading to reduced swelling.
- diabetes
According to studies IBT has beneficial effects when practiced along with other therapeutic measures like medicine and exercise.
Spinal cord injury
There are many researches showing improvement in case of spinal cord injuries and nervous disorders.
Improvement in skin diseases like psoriasis
Boosts immune system
Beneficial in case of back pain, frequent urination, morning light headedness, difficult sleeping, snoring etc..