Does inversion therapy work? It all depends on your description of “work”. Inversion therapy tables similar to the Teeter EP550 inversion table affect the vertebra and, to a lesser extent, other joints by reversing the pull of gravity. The concept is that the never ending effect of gravity compressing our spines and bodies every day has a deleterious effect on the health of our back and may even accelerate degenerative pathologies in the spinal column that could lead to a pinched sciatic nerve, sciatica, or low back pain in general.
Gravity is of course required to live on earth and even has a benficial effect on healthy people . The space program has reams of documentation on the less than positive effects of weightlessness (no gravity) on astronauts. Without gravity, muscles become weak and bones begin to lose strength and calcification making them more prone to break . So some exposure to gravity is indeed good . The bad part of gravity is the eternal compression from our heads pushing down toward the earth. For the perfect specimen who is heavily muscled and has a perfectly aligned spine , gravity and the compression it causes will, most likely , not have any negative effect. The problem is that most of us are nowhere near the physical shape of the ” ideal person ” and we do feel the effects of gravity.
Inversion therapy has been used for a long time . Recall the gravity boots from thirty or forty years ago? You had to be a gymnast simply to get them hooked on the bar and you had better hope the bar was strong or you would end up on your head! The next model was easier to use but high-priced and bulky making household use extremely impractical. These items held the person by the thighs in what was recognized as a 90-90 position. The user was bent forward at the hips or waistline 90 degrees and held by their knees becoming bent 90 degrees as well. These devices did the job very nicely except for the simple fact that considerable power or agility was needed to return to an upright position. For an individual struggling from a higher level of pain, it could be very tough to get out of the machine with out further straining their back.