Health Benefits of Using Inversion Table

Inversion therapy involves placing your feet higher than your head for many different physical benefits. Inversion tables enable you to partake in inversion therapy in the comforts of your own home. Thinking about buying one for you or someone you love? Read on for specific benefits of using them, things you should consider when purchasing, and reviews to help you pick the best inversion table for your lifestyle.
Correctly using an inversion table can help relieve more than just back pain. These tables can also target the source of specific aches and pain throughout your body.

Back Pain

Inversion tables help relieve back pain by allowing each joint to decompress, stretching your spine and improving overall spinal health. Specifically, they rehydrate discs, lessen nerve pressure, realign your spine and help relax tense muscles.

Stress

Tension and stress may cause muscle spasms, pain and headaches. It may also cause misalignment of the spine, overstimulated nerves, an inefficient lymphatic system, and low oxygen levels in your blood. Several different studies show that inversion therapy helps combat the negative effects of stress and pain on your body.

Joint Health

Inversion therapy improves joint health by lubricating your joints while changing the pressure and suction components inside the joint. This “takes the weight off” your cartilage and enhances shock absorption.

Flexibility

If your muscles are too tight, or your joints are too stiff, your body may become unbalanced, which may then result in injury. Inversion tables stretch your muscles, decompress your joints, improve the efficiency of your muscles, and enhance your mobility and flexibility.

Fitness and Core Strength

Inversion tables offer an alternate way to target each of your core muscles without adding compressive weight on your spine.

Considerations

If you’re looking to purchase an inversion table, there are a few things you should consider before buying one.

Weight Capacity

Inversion tables have a maximum weight capacity, so make sure to choose one that is made to hold your weight. Generally speaking, tables that have a higher weight capacity tend to be sturdier. However, they will also tend to be heavier and take up more space.

Height Capacity

Most inversion tables can accommodate a wide range of heights. Nevertheless, it is good to check if you will be able to fit on the table comfortably.

Adjustments

Inversion tables have many different ways it can be adjusted – starting angle, maximum angle, height and ankles. Some tables have mechanisms that make adjustments quick and easy, while others are less user-friendly.

Cushioning

They may be padded at the backrest and ankles to make the inversion experience more comfortable. Others have additional padding for your head and lumbar.

Footprint

Before purchasing one, you might want to think about where you want to put it in your home, then buy one that can fit in that space. Some tables can be folded for easy transport and storage when not in use.

Summary

Inversion tables can do a whole lot of good for your body simply by letting gravity pull your body in a way it’s not used to. These tables can ease back pain, combat stress, improve joint health and overall flexibility, and can even work your core muscles. When purchasing an inversion table, consider its maximum weight capacity, height capacity, all the different capable adjustments, cushioning, and footprint. Now that you are armed with all this information and the reviews for the top ten inversion tables on the market, buying the best inversion table for you will be a breeze!
Inversion therapy has been used in different cultures and societies for curing back pain. The most common method of doing this therapy is use of an inversion table which balances the weight on both its sides and then inverts the body upside down. Following are some interesting benefits of using an inversion table.
1.      Faster And Permanent Relief from Pain
The major benefit of inversion table is that it provides relief from back stress very fast. You will feel a significant decrease in pain within a few minutes. If you use it regularly then the pain will disappear forever. This is what its customers say about it.
2.      Relaxes Back Muscles
Another great benefit of this simple piece of equipment is that it relaxes the back muscles. This happens due to inversion motion. When the body is being in inverted position then the flow of blood increases towards all body parts. This in result provides relief from muscles stress.
3.      Maintains Posture
You will be amazed to know that regular use of this table align our spine and places the discs in their right position. In additions, it improves our posture. This means that there is no need to go for any surgery for your spine; you just have to lie down on this table for a few minutes everyday.
4.      Relieves Body Stress
Stress is very common these days. Majority of the people feel minor pain in neck and back after spending a busy day. This mostly happens when you remain at the same position for quite a long time. The use of inversion table not only provides relief from stress but it also decreases stress in our neck and back. You will feel relaxed and fresh after using it.
5.      Increases Flexibility
You must use inversion table daily even if you do not have back pain. This is because it increases the flexibility of body.
6.      Increases Blood Flow
If you perform yoga then you will certainly know that in yoga, a special posture is maintained to increase blood flow. Inversion table helps you to achieve that posture easily. Inversion table stimulates the flow of blood that offers additional benefits as proper flow of blood is very important for all the body parts to work efficiently and effectively.
7.      Good For Workouts
This table is also used for various workouts. You can fully stretch your body using this table. In addition, you can perform squats.
8.      Elongates Our Spine
Most of you will not be aware of the fact that the force of gravity leaves us shorter every day as it applies pressure on our back bone. Inversion table makes us taller by stretching our body and elongating our spine. It works against gravity as it reverses the gravitational force and decreases the pressure on our back.
9.      Good For Abs
Some people also use it for developing abs as remaining still at certain angles helps you to apply extra amount of pressure on the abdomen which automatically burns fat. This helps in building muscles.
10.  Maintains Joint Health
The regular use of inversion table also improves joint health. This is why health experts highly suggest older people to use this table every day. This table decreases pressure from our joints and makes them relax. It particularly benefits ankle, hips and knee joints as they are more prone to stress because they bear most of the pressure when we are standing or carrying weight.
11.  Increases Your Focus
It is also believed that regular use of this table increases your ability to concentrate on thing for longer time.
12.  Increases Balance
This table is all about maintaining balance. You will definitely achieve balance and stability after regular use of this table.
These are just a few inversion table benefits. Hence, it is now clear that inversion table is not only good for patients of back pain but also for everyone else. There are various companies manufacturing this table at very reasonable price. Everyone can easily afford this table so it is highly suggested buying one for your home.

Americans Still Making Unhealthy Choices: CDC

TUESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- The overall health of Americans isn't improving much, with about six in 10 people either overweight or obese and large numbers engaging in unhealthy behaviors like smoking, heavy drinking or not exercising, a new government report shows.

Released Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the report found Americans continuing to make many of the lifestyle choices that have led to soaring rates of heart disease, diabetes and other chronic illnesses, including the following:

About six of 10 adults drink, including an increase in those who reported episodic heavy drinking of five or more drinks in one day during the previous year.Twenty percent of adults smoke, and less than one-half of smokers attempted to quit in the past year.Only one in five adults met federal guidelines for both aerobic activity and muscle-strengthening exercise. One in three was completely inactive when it came to any leisure-time aerobic activity.

The one bright spot in the report came in the area of sleep behavior. About seven in 10 adults meet the federal objective for sufficient sleep.

The findings have been gleaned from nearly 77,000 random interviews conducted between 2008 and 2010.

The numbers reflect persistent trends, said report author Charlotte Schoenborn, a health statistician at the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics.

"Changes have not been enormous," Schoenborn said. "It's been a very, very slow process of changing awareness of personal choices for healthier ways of life. All of the health-related federal agencies, and a lot of nonfederal groups, are putting a lot of resources to make people aware of the effect they can have on their own health. This report is just designed to say where we are."

The findings did not surprise Rich Hamburg, deputy director of Trust for America's Health, a nonprofit public health organization.

"I think we're in a situation now where we're at a crossroads," Hamburg said. "We have two paths to go. We're hopeful that if we continue to invest in community-based prevention, if we promote healthy eating and active living, these rates will begin to decrease."

Public health organizations use this report to determine which groups of Americans are susceptible to unhealthy behaviors, study author Schoenborn said.

For example, while overall people are getting enough sleep, it turns out that doesn't hold true for people with marital problems, she said. About 38 percent of divorced, separated, or widowed adults have trouble getting enough sleep, compared with 27 percent of married folks.

While this is not the federal government's official report on obesity, its findings jibe with both public and private research into the epidemic, said Hamburg at Trust for America's Health.

At this point, only seven states have overweight and obesity rates that are under 60 percent, he said.

"We've seen for nearly three decades a rise in adult rates of overweight and obesity," Hamburg said. "We're hoping we are reaching a plateau, but we've hoped for that in the past."

Young adults provide the most hope for the future, it appears. For example, those aged 18 to 24 were the only age group to show a decline in smoking, from 23.5 percent to about 21 percent.

"Smoking has remained very stubborn at one in five adults. It's just a terrible addiction," Schoenborn said. "The one small little glimmer of hope I saw was in the 18- to 24-year-olds, where we saw some improvement. You hear so much about overweight and obesity and chronic diseases, and how much of our health lies in our hands, but nothing seems to be changing much."

For his part, Hamburg said that despite the lack of progress, it is vital to continue pressing the case that Americans have the power to improve their health through their personal choices. Without lifestyle changes, chronic disease will flourish and health care spending will skyrocket.

"If we can lower obesity trends by a small amount, say 5 percent in each state, we could save millions of American from health problem and save billions of dollars in health spending," he said.

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Health Highlights: May 22, 2013

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Mystery Illness Kills 2 in Alabama

A respiratory illness of unknown origin has hospitalized five people and killed two others in southeast Alabama, state health officials announced Tuesday.

Over the past few weeks, the patients were admitted to hospitals with cough, fever and shortness of breath, Alabama Department of Health spokeswoman Mary McIntyre said in a statement, the Associated Press reported.

Lab tests are currently underway to try and identify the nature of the illnesses and McIntyre said preliminary results are expected by Wednesday or Thursday.

So far, "we're only aware of [cases in] the Southeast, but we don't know, we haven't received reports from anywhere else," McIntyre told the AP. "That's why we're trying to get the information out."

-----

Report Backs Park Service Response to Yosemite Virus Outbreak

A federal probe into a deadly viral outbreak last year among campers at Yosemite National Park found that park officials acted appropriately.

Nine tourists staying at the California park fell ill with hantavirus and three died. An investigation traced the infections to deer mice nesting within the double walls of new tents in Yosemite's Curry Village family camping site, according to the Associated Press.

The new report from the Interior Department's Office of Inspector General found that the National Park Service responded appropriately and according to department policy.

"When the outbreak was identified, NPS mobilized to contain and remediate the outbreak and to prevent further outbreaks," Mary Kendall, a deputy inspector general, wrote in a letter tied to the report, the AP reported.

Current park policy did not require that park officials approve design changes to the tents linked to the outbreak, the report found. However, the park service should initiate cyclical pest monitoring and inspections of public accommodations to minimize the threat, the report's authors said.

Delaware North Companies Parks and Resorts, the concessionaire responsible for the Curry Village tents, said it would adhere to the recommendations in the new report and is removing the type of tent cabin implicated in the outbreak.

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More Kids Getting Donor Organs, But Gaps Persist, Study Finds

WEDNESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- Over the last decade, the number of American children who die each year awaiting an organ donation dropped by more than half, new research reveals. And increasing numbers of children are receiving donor organs.

During that time, the overall pool of potential organ donors expanded to include not just patients who've experienced brain death but also those with a "circulatory determination of death."

But it's unclear how much that shift in donor criteria helps children waiting for transplants.

"There are a couple of bottom lines, the first being that there are simply not enough donor organs for people on the waiting list, whether they're children or not," said study lead author Dr. Jennifer Workman, a fellow in pediatric critical care medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City. "So we have to do anything we can as a medical community to chip away at the stark numbers.

"And in trying to get as many organ donors as possible, we have to think of who are the possible donor candidates," Workman added. "Traditionally, it's been those who met brain death criteria. But if the family has a child or adult who has such severe injuries or is so severely ill that there is no way to make any recovery they may choose to withdraw life-support, regardless of whether or not there's brain death. And in that situation that patient can still be an organ donor, and some families may feel that participating in this process is appropriate and meaningful for them."

The study authors noted that regardless of trends, the overall picture for those currently awaiting an organ donation continues to be dire.

Currently, the waiting list for organ transplants exceeds 117,000 American adults and children. And although roughly 28,500 transplants took place in 2011, that same year 7,000 people died while waiting for an appropriate donor match.

Against that backdrop, many in the medical community have turned to the prospect of enlarging the donation pool by accepting organs from both pediatric and adult patients deemed to have experienced circulatory death, even in the absence of full brain death.

The researchers noted that donation after circulatory determination of death (DCDD) was actually the norm when organ transplants first came to the fore back in the 1950s and 1960s. "We didn't actually have brain death criteria until the 1980s," Workman said. "So when transplants first became an option, DCDD was the only way to donate."

But with advances in medical technology, a shift got under way toward relying solely on organs sourced from patients who had lost all brain function, or to those who had lost both circulatory and respiratory function.

The pendulum started to swing back, however, in the 1990s in light of both growing recipient need and the wish on the part of family members of circulatory death patients to participate in the donation process.

In 2006, the Institute of Medicine, an independent panel that advises the federal government, encouraged medical facilities to develop and adopt guidelines outlining under what exact conditions such donations are to take place.

To explore how this may have affected the pool of young patients up to age 17 awaiting an organ, the study authors examined data collected by the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network from 2001 through 2010.

By looking at the statistics covering all liver, kidney, heart, lung, pancreas and small bowel donations, the team found that just over 14,200 American children received an organ transplant in that time frame.

For the most part, the number of annual donations to children in need rose over the decade, from a low of 1,170 in 2001 to a high of 1,628 by 2009. However, there was a dip to 1,475 donations by 2010.

And while the number of pediatric donors dipped by 15 percent over the study time frame, more than two-thirds of donations to children were cases in which a child donor gave to a child recipient.

As had been the case in prior years, most organs given by child donors actually ended up being given to adult recipients.

Circulatory death donations to child recipients continue to be just a small fraction of the overall donation pool, the research team found. Just 31 such donations taking place in 2010, although that figure is way up from 2001, a year in which just a single such donation transpired.

The new findings appear in the June print issue of the journal Pediatrics.

On a decidedly positive note, Workman's team found that although the number of children on the transplant waiting list held steady throughout the study period, the number of children who died while awaiting a donation plummeted from a high of 262 in 2001 to 110 by 2010.

"So while this decline is great, from what we looked at we can't directly say that increasing DCDD donations has been the reason," Workman said. "But it seems logical to conclude that the more organs made available, the more it will help to relieve the waiting list strain. Even if these DCDD organs go to adults, it frees up other organs that might go to children. So everybody benefits."

Dr. Craig Lillehei, an associate professor in Harvard Medical School's department of surgery, and program director of Boston Children's Hospital's department of surgery, seconded the thought.

"I would totally agree with that," said Lillehei, who co-wrote an editorial accompanying Workman's study. "What we have is a big problem for both adults and children. And it is absolutely right that increasing the availability of organs overall ultimately helps everybody."

More information

To learn more about organ donations, visit the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

SOURCES: Jennifer Workman, M.D., fellow, pediatric critical care medicine, School of Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City; Craig Lillehei, M.D., associate professor, department of surgery, Harvard Medical School, and program director, department of surgery, Boston Children's Hospital; June 2013, Pediatrics

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Health Tip: Make Healthy Foods Taste Better

(HealthDay News) -- The better foods taste, the more likely you are to eat them.

So the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics suggests how to make healthy foods more flavorful and appealing:

Cook absorbent grains such as barley and rice in reduced-sodium, low-fat beef or chicken broth.When making dough, before baking add ingredients such as sun-dried tomatoes, herbs or cheese.Experiment with different herbs such as coriander, cumin, basil or caraway.Use a sharp, grated cheese such as romano on salad, pasta, vegetables or rice.Use dried fruits (cranberries, figs, apricots) to add flavor; moisten them by soaking in broth, fruit juice or cooking wine.Season foods with a sweet, savory or tangy marinade. Just check the label to make sure it's low in sodium.
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COPD May Be Over-Diagnosed Among Uninsured

WEDNESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- Roughly four in 10 uninsured patients who have been diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) actually do not have the lung disease, a small new study suggests.

At issue: Faulty diagnoses were made based on an evaluation of symptoms, rather than by means of the so-called "gold standard" disease test known as spirometry, which shows how well a patient's lungs are working by measuring the amount of air they can exhale and how long that takes.

The study is scheduled for presentation Wednesday at the American Thoracic Society annual meeting in Philadelphia. The data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

COPD is a progressive disease that makes it hard to breathe. Symptoms include coughing, wheezing, shortness of breath and chest tightness, according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Cigarette smoking is the top cause of COPD.

"While there have been many studies of the under-diagnosis of COPD, there has not been a U.S.-based study that has quantified the problem of over-diagnosis," Dr. Christian Ghattas, a second-year medical resident at Saint Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown, Ohio, said in a society news release. "And yet, the cost of treating someone for COPD is high."

How high? The study team cited statistics suggesting the cost exceeds $4,100 per year.

The researchers re-evaluated 80 patients, average age 53, being treated at a federally funded health center based in Akron, Ohio, that is designed to offer medical care to the uninsured and Medicaid patients. All the patients had been diagnosed in 2011 or 2012 as having COPD or as needing an inhaler device often given to treat COPD.

Investigators found that less than 18 percent of the patients had undergone spirometry testing, despite a Global Obstructive Lung Disease recommendation that COPD not be diagnosed without such a test.

Once conducted, spirometry testing revealed that nearly 43 percent of the patients did not have any obstruction that could be construed as COPD.

What's more, another quarter of the patients had a reversible condition that is more typical of asthma than COPD.

"We were shocked at the percentage," Ghattas said. He noted that, overall, probably half the patients were misdiagnosed.

"Although the number of patients in our study was small, I believe this study is representative of an uninsured and underserved patient population," he added. "However, the findings might be different among patients who are insured. They might be higher or lower. We simply don't know," Ghattas said.

But, "it is obviously detrimental to be on medications that won't work for you," Ghattas cautioned. "You won't feel better -- and that by itself can take a psychological toll -- and you may experience side effects that can compromise other aspects of your health."

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Abused Children at Risk for Obesity as Adults: Study

WEDNESDAY, May 22 (HealthDay News) -- Children who are physically, sexually or emotionally abused or neglected are at greater risk for obesity later in life, a new review suggests.

British researchers found that abused children are 36 percent more likely to be obese as adults. They concluded that child abuse could be viewed as a modifiable risk factor for obesity.

"We found that being maltreated as a child significantly increased the risk of obesity in adult life," study author Dr. Andrea Danese, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry, said in a news release from King's College. "Prevention of child maltreatment remains paramount, and our findings highlight the serious long-term health effects of these experiences."

In conducting the study, the researchers examined data on more than 190,000 people enrolled in 41 studies around the world. They found the link between child abuse and adult obesity could not be explained by childhood or adult socioeconomic status, smoking, alcohol intake or level of physical activity.

Child abuse was also not associated with obesity among children or teens, the researchers added, suggesting the children were not abused because they were overweight or obese.

However, the researchers did find depression might explain why some abused children become obese as adults. They noted that additional research is needed to determine the effects of depression on the body, specifically the brain, hormones that regulate appetite and metabolism.

The study authors added that more research is needed to determine what treatment strategies would prevent abused children from becoming obese later in life.

"If the association is causal, as suggested by animal studies, childhood maltreatment could be seen as a potentially modifiable risk factor for obesity -- a health concern affecting one third of the population and often resistant to interventions," Danese said.

While the study found an association between child abuse and obesity later in life, it did not prove cause and effect.

The study was published May 21 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on obesity.

SOURCE: King's College London, news release, May 21, 2013
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