What’s the Best Mattress for Your Back?

Dec 14, 2016Back Pain0 comments

Has the thought of what is the best mattress for your back crossed your mind? Or have you ever asked any chiropractor like the Houma, LA chiropractor, what is the best mattress for your back? Walk to the marketfoam, water or coiled, or even a combination of the three, and you’ll be amazed at the large number of mattresses on the market. You’ll meet all types of mattresses; from soft, medium, and firm. So, where do you begin? Where do you get the best mattress that won’t hurt your back from?

The many different options do more harm than good; it makes it arduous to get the right mattress.According to an orthopedic surgeon survey, 95-percent of the surgeons surveyed are confident that the mattress is really handy when it comes to managing pain. In fact, 76-percent of these surgeons recommended a firm mattress. But, are these claims supported by research?

In a study conducted by Oklahoma University, researchers provided 59 healthy persons with beds that were at least 5 years old. The researchers also provided new beds with a medium-firm, foam-encased spring mattress. All of these 59 people stated that they had less back pain, improved sleep quality, less shoulder stiffness, and greater comfort after just twenty-eight days on new beds. But, when these researchers went through previous studies that included comparing foam versus coil versus water beds, they noticed that they were mixed, and this raised questions.

Both the researchers and the public wondered if new beds are better than old ones as far as pain management is concerned.Several studies, including chiropractor-led study, which is also supported by the Houma, LA chiropractor, have looked into the difference between mattresses. The chiropractor-led study has looked at two factors, which are maximum pressure and spinal distortion. According to the researchers, a mattress had two goals, and these were to exhibit LOW maximum pressures as well as LITTLE distortion.

Another study, this time conducted by a group of South Korean researchers, noticed that the polled persons gave highest ratings when their spinal curve while lying down was the same as their standing spinal curve. This quickly led to a 6-day and night follow up study that saw researchers measure brain waves, body temperature, eye movements, chin movement, and heart rhythm overnight in a sleep laboratory. They noticed that when participants considered the mattress comfortable, sleep efficiency and percentage of deep sleep shot up. Moreover, they (participants) woke up less often.A Spanish study noted that comfort determines how well the user’s body is distributed over the mattress, in that a more comfortable sleeping place evenly distributes the weight of the user.

Another study that had 313 adults suffering from chronic low back pain separated participants into 2 groups in that one group slept on a medium-firm mattress, while the other group slept on a firm mattress. Both groups slept on their respective mattresses for 90 days. The study concluded that participants who slept on a medium-firm mattress woke up the following morning feeling less pain in bed, and they had the best outcomes for pain in rising and disability.

Therefore, from all these findings, we can advise doctors and chiropractors (including the Houma, LA chiropractor) to recommend to their patients a mattress that’s comfortable enough and doesn’t distort the spine. A mattress that distributes weight evenly and is medium-firm in density is the mattress you should go for, because this is best mattress for your back.

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