Why 6 inch elevation?

I just recently watched another interview with Andrew on a Clive de Carle show, and he mentions for some beds like kingsize ones, they may need to be raised 7.5 inches. I didn't understand this until I did some reading and it seems my inclined bed therapy for the last 5 months has only been done at 4.57 degree angle, instead of the recommended 5 degrees.

I am from the UK and my double bed is 75 inches long, so for the past 5 months I have had my bed raised by 6 inches only, and this means I only had an elevation of 4.57 degrees. I didn't realize that when Andrew said to raise the bed 6 inches that he was referring to a smaller length bed of 68 inches only, and in fact didn't understand until now just how important the length of a bed is when setting the height.

I have just finished re-adjusting things and its now been raised 8.25 inches at the end, but doing the maths this now equates to 6.28 degrees at the very end. I sleep with my head about 12 inches below the top of the mattress but this still is a 7 inch rise, and 6.05 degrees angle.

I know its a little over the recommended 5 degrees so will this be an issue? Also, does it matter much where I rest my head on the mattress?

Thanks.
Paul.

4.5 degrees is good enough actually. Andrews initial study revealed even 5 inches was enough..he put the last inch just for good measure. Spinal cord injury people sometimes go 8 inches to increase the traction....by my calculations Andrew started seeing circulation in the pipes by 3.8 degrees actually. To get to 5 degrees was just to make sure. Best is test it out yourself and see what seems to work for you.

Aim for 5 degrees for comfort and effect. Going higher you trade off comfort and introduce sheer forces, You may also find your bottom rib aches when sleeping on your side because of the increased angle. However, I have seen beds raised much higher than five degrees and those using then are comfortable.

You can download an inclinometer app for your phone which when placed on the bed frame will read the angle of your bed.

Ozone is correct, I originally tested a 5 inch raise on a standard bed and added an inch, which coincidentally matched the Ancient Egyptian Inclined Beds.


How are you finding IBT ?

Andrew

*** Removed large part of this post which is in my testimonial ***

As I said in a previous post, a couple of days ago I have decided to raise my bed again now by just over 8 inches, which gives me just over a 6 degree angle at my head. I know you suggest I go for the 5 degree mark, but I am going to try out my new setting for a week or so first, because its actually made my pains disappear completely when I now lay on my side - being completely pain free on sleeping is something I have never experienced over these past few years, so I am going to go with the flow for now.

Paul.

Hi Paul, thank you so much for sharing your experience and thoughts, very interesting reading through your post.
RE: psoriasis. We had a lady stay with us for 8 days using an inclined bed. By the time she went home her psoriasis on scalp and elbows had completely gone. Her usually dry paper like skin on body arms and legs indicated a lack of potassium, backed up by her usually getting cramps at night. The cramps continued while she was here but got less. No potassium was given as a supplement. She also said she felt stronger fitter and had more energy and indeed managed some long walks. 5 miles one day, something she could not have done before. She also reported sight improvements and for someone who has very poor sight and almost blind in one eye, this was very exciting to witness.

By day 5 she came into our kitchen and said look at this. She sat down and rotated her ankle, moved her toes and moved her ankle forwards and backwards. For 28 years she had not been able to do this because of a broken ankle and metal plates, which were eventually removed. 2 months prior to coming here, she was told by her physio that she would never be able to move the ankle and foot again.

In your post, you said it took several months before the bed began to work. What happened there was the bed began working from day 1 and it took you all that time to realise the changes that were taking place. This is normal for people using IBT

Your back problem should also become far less troublesome.

Andrew

PS could you also add your post to the testimonials section?

Hi Andrew, I have just added it to the testimonials page after copying it from my desktop. I made a slight change in the latter part of it as it was not relevant. No need to put up my last post at all here.

Paul.

Thanks Paul, have enabled your testimonial. Have been considering removing the captcha puzzle from the forum and moderating the first 3 posts of new members. Sorry for any confusion as to why your posts didn't show up. Unfortunately forums are plagued by spammers aiming to direct search engines away from a site.
How did you find the captcha puzzle at login? Again it is set to 3 posts then removed from future posts.

One other question: Should I enable users to be able to delete their posts as well as edit them? My concern here is that if someone has a weak password, then another could get in and remove all of their posts.

That's okay I figured it was some form of monitoring for new members, and it's probably best to keep something like this as a security precaution anyway. I didn't have any problem with the captcha. It's been a while since I actually started using forums again so I don't really know how things work these days when it comes to the mechanics of forums. I would think its possibly not a good idea to allow any users delete their own posts, and if they want this done they should contact the moderator first to request it. Editing is usually something that would only need to be done to a new post that is fairly recent, so I don't even think one should be able to edit posts older than a few days, but then I may be wrong on this, and its probably best to have a member vote about all this.

A few years ago I was on a forum when one of the users had some sort of gripe with with an admin. He was an intelligent fellow and the topics covered were concerning ancient history, and he had posted lots of interesting information. Anyway he decided to leave the forum for good, but before he did so he removed all his older posts. I don't know how but the forum administrator didn't make backups or something, and all these posts were lost forever. After that time there were safeguards put in place so that a post could only be deleted if a valid request was made to the moderator, and editing a post was only available during a day or so, or again upon request.

Again, maybe its best to get an entire member vote on how they would like the site to work.
Hope that helps.
Paul.

Thanks Paul, I agree with keeping original posts, else all the valuable comments on that post would also be lost as you said. I added the monitor first few posts option in thinking it would be better than the captcha puzzle.