Mattress and back pain

Backache? Now science says enough about the "orthopedic" mattress

For years orthopedists have advised those who suffered from back pain to sleep on hard mattresses like boards, without having at their disposal great scientific evidence on the quality of this advice. A clinical research conducted in Spain and published in November 2003 in the prestigious medical journal "The Lancet" * has once and for all dismantled the old and damaging theory of the "orthopedic" mattress and has shown that the ideal mattress for back pain is one of medium hardness, even better if able to adapt to the body.

The research, conducted in Spain by Francisco Kovacs of the Kovacs Foundation of Palma de Mallorca, involved 313 people with chronic and non-specific back pain, that is not due to known causes or other pathologies, which slept on various types of mattress, without know which ones. The people who have had that of medium rigidity have stated twice that they feel better and even take less painkillers, compared to those who slept on the classic hard mattress.

This was confirmed by the most recent study conducted at the Oklahoma State University ** (USA), by Drs Bred Jacobson, Tia Fallace and Hugh Gemmell, published in 2006 in the Journal of Chiropractic Medicine which also showed how to sleep on a new mattress compared to an old man at least 5 years old, he improves the quality of sleep by 62% and reduces back pain by 55.3%.

Even chiropractors have not advised mattresses that are too rigid for a long time: a slightly softer type is better, because it adapts better to the natural curvatures of the spine and allows a uniform distribution of the weights of the various areas of the body. Of course, mattresses with these characteristics cost a little more, but it is good to remember that on the mattress we spend about a third of our life, so it is not utopia to think that this must be our most important investment.

Edited by: Oliverio Abitrante

owner of the center specializing in healthy rest "Sogni d'oro"

Via Rivocati, 124/126 - Cosenza - Tel. 0984-2943

www.materassisognidoro.it

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