Anti-Gravity Boots: Inversion Tables

Can you tell me about inversion tables? I’ve been doing yoga since April when I found out I have degeneration of the discs in my back. The yoga has been great to keep it from flaring up, but it seems logical that traction from hanging upside would help to stretch my back out. My teacher says she can show me yoga postures that will do the same thing, but I’m not sure that’s true. What do you think?
- Sandra

The history of hanging upside down for back problems is much more interesting than any lame humor I might use to begin your answer. The father of scientific medicine, Hippocrates, wrote exacting directions for treating spinal curvatures by strapping a patient securely to a ladder by his lower legs, having assistants hold the ladder upside down off the roof of a house, and dropping the poor soul to the ground. Assuming success was measured by a lack of further complaints at the follow-up visit, I’d wager his cure rate reached nearly 100%. Always mindful of a cost-effective treatment, today’s HMO case reviewers would probably approve, but likely balk at the expense of the ladder and advise using the procedure without it.

The use of inversion therapy for back pain, as well as exercise, surged in the late seventies when some encouraging research spawned as many as 30 companies to begin producing devices. It also didn’t hurt the cause when an upended American Gigolo named Richard Gere used a pair of boots on film. The design of these foam-lined boots with their metal clamps and hooks has not changed much since, but tables to ease your transition from standing human to sleeping bat have finally arrived. A good quality set of inversion boots and table now costs about $300, nearly the same price you paid for the X-rays that showed your degenerated discs.

A spinal disc lies between each set of vertebrae and is much like a sponge. As such, it depends on your body movement to squeeze nutrient-rich fluid in and out of its structure. When discs are damaged by trauma, disease or other causes, that necessary motion can be reduced. Just as a sponge would, the disc may lose hydration and shrink a bit, bringing the bones closer together. This narrowing speeds the natural degeneration of aging, a category of osteoarthritis, and often results in back pain, stiffness and inflexibility.

Hanging by your ankles to elongate, rehydrate and traction those discs seems like a great logical idea. Such logic inevitably spawns miraculous claims of immune system boosting and the like. My favorite wacky statement is made by one of the most respected and largest sellers of inversion tables: we “are wonderfully designed to be upside down,” only we’ve been “detrained to be inverted.” Apparently, man is more like the opossum than anyone suspected. Real research does show at least temporary benefit from this type of gravity traction for lower back pain, but the same studies cite even more warnings than would be necessary before a date with Paris Hilton.

The inverted position increases both blood pressure and the pressure inside the eye, so strong contraindications include hypertension, heart disease and glaucoma. Anyone on blood thinners or even aspirin therapy should also exercise caution. What may surprise you, as well as exclude you, is those with extreme near-sightedness are at a substantially greater risk for retinal detachment from the higher intra-ocular pressure. As if we need icing on this cake, there is debate over possible increased risk of stroke with gravity traction. The irony is that disc degeneration and pain is often a part of aging, but inversion therapy may be too dangerous for the people who could use it most.

Perspective may be necessary here; similar cautions may apply to some of the inverted yoga positions your instructor has offered to teach you. However, except for the headstand posture, none reverse blood flow and gravity as directly as complete inversion. In addition, these postures require guidance by a teacher, dedicated practice and skill – all of which increases the safety of yoga. A difference exists between simply reversing gravity with an inverted yoga position and actual traction accomplished by hanging upside-down, but the modest benefits of the latter don’t outweigh the risks.

But, before you go to the park and start grabbing kids off the jungle gym for a stern lecture, remember how much fun it used to be swinging by your knees. As long as they don’t go tying one another to ladders and dragging them up to the roof, you can continue your yoga under the trees and simply ignore them; folding yourself into Wind Relieving Pose is hard enough without needless anxiety.


Dr. Ed Rabin is a chiropractor practicing at Life Chiropractic Center in Boise. Send your discarded inversion boots and health-related questions to theantidote@edrabin.com (on the Web at www.edrabin.com).