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Have You Tried Tilting The Head Of Your Bed?


ajw4790

Tilt Head of Bed  

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Hi,

I was told by a ANS specialist to try and tilt the head of my bed 6 to 10 inches. I have been trying to figure out how to logistically accomplish this with what I have bed wise. I tried 2-3 inches before for a couple of months and thought it made me feel worse. He insisted though that some patients he has had have shown great symptom improvement after doing this. So, I am still open to trying...

So, I was wondering if ANYONE here has had any SUCCESS with tilting the head of your bed with decreasing your symptoms????

I know this has been discussed a lot before, but I do not remember much of any positive stories about doing this... I only can recall stories of people trying and having negative results.

Please let me know of any positive results you may have had from this, and how far tilted, did you slowly increase to a higher height or just put it up high at the beginning?

It has been suggested that this may only work with those that are supine hypertensive, which I am not. Anyone else have ideas behind this????

For those not as familiar with this topic the idea behind tilting the head of the bed is to cause pooling in lower extremities to decrease the amount of fluid loss through the kidneys overnight. It is somewhat counterintutive to cause the pooling, but it is to keep fluid volume up.

:)

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I wanted to qualify my vote of "Yes, I found it to work and have kept bed tilted" by saying that I my Mayo doc suggested to tilt the bed 4-6 inches, but anything higher than 3 inches made my adrenaline-symptoms worse. I honestly don't know if tilting helped much... at the same time we tilted the bed I started drinking lots, increasing sodium, wearing compression daily, and going for daily walks. I kept my bed tilted in case it helped. It hasn't seemed to hurt me any. I still can't raise it to 4 inches yet, without increasing my adrenaline though.

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There was a member who posted last year about success with tilt training, she went from a wheelchair to running every day but I think the tilting was only part of her treatment.

Personally I can't sleep if I'm on even a slight incline - camping in slightly slopping fields as a kid used to stop me sleeping too.

Flop

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My doctor (Mayo, MN) told me to tilt my bed 4". While I voted 'yes' on the survey that I had my bed tilted and it is still tilted, I really haven't noticed a difference either way. A height of 6-10 inches will be hard to do with a bed frame...but Good Luck!

Cheers,

jana

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Hi again!

After my poll here, I am not much more convinced that this works for most of us. I think I will wait, and put off buying anything. Depending on how my living arrangements go and what I have accessible in the future, I may give it a trial, but it does not sound promising.

Thanks for everybody's input!

<_<

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Hi again!

After my poll here, I am not much more convinced that this works for most of us. I think I will wait, and put off buying anything. Depending on how my living arrangements go and what I have accessible in the future, I may give it a trial, but it does not sound promising.

Thanks for everybody's input!

:blink:

It seemed to work pretty good for me. I just got two phone books and put them under the top posts of the bed. It is a cheap way to raise the bed without buying anything. My work had a lot of them so I was able to take them but you shouldn't have any problem finding them for free.

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Guest tearose

Tilting is not an option for me. I have another condition where it recommended to elevate my legs!!!

I stay where I am and don't do either type of tilting.

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i use a foam bed wedge with a memory pillow on top of that. when my legs are real swollen or i've had a fall an a broken foot or sprain i swao it out for my feet and just use two large pillows. it has taken away the feeling of pressure on my chest when i would wake up and try to breathe.

what does it do for others?

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Chrissy has had great luck with tilting her bed. I think it's been about one year since we tilted her bed (6")and the thing it helps the most with is her nausea in the morning.

It took her awhile to get used to it--maybe about 1-2 weeks, but it was well worth it. We bought bed risers from Target or Walmart, here's a link...of course, we only used two for the head of her bed.

http://www.target.com/Plastic-Bed-Risers-S...4-3566611-44295

Patti

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  • 2 months later...

I tilt my bed. It helps tremendously. So much so that I take wood blocks to tilt beds when not at home. I tilt between 3 and 4 inches. Even with that, I tend to slip down the bed during the night. I'm afraid that for me, tilting 5 or more inches would find both me and my ocvers slipped totally off the bed by morning!

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