# Inversion tables - what's the Straight Dope? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 28, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197 "2009-11-28T03:27:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/1 "2009-11-28T03:27:00Z")
A friend and I walked past the entrance of a shop that sells all sorts of things to improve back health - massage chairs, Tempur-Pedic mattresses, etc. They were offering free 10-minute chair massages (basically in exchange for signing up for their mailing list) so we went for it. While we were doing that, the kids tried out the mattresses - and someone there helped them (and then me) try out the inversion table they had for sale. The salesman gave my friend a 2-page list of all the purported benefits of such a thing - improved flow of the synovial fluid in the joints being one I seem to remember. Interestingly, it didn’t appear to put much pressure on my knees - possibly because I didn’t go all that far back (maybe 20 degress off of horizontal) and sort of felt good, though when I came back to vertical I felt a bit dizzy for a minute. I stood there w/o moving for a minute and was fine. So - are they truly beneficial? Are they dangerous? ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/2 "2009-11-28T03:57:20Z")
I’m not sure if it’s the same thing you’re talking about, but my mom has back problems, and she has this piece of equipment that lets her hang upside down. She says it helps a lot. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/3 "2009-11-28T03:57:58Z")
> [@Mama\_Zappa](#): > > …Are they dangerous? If you’ve ever had a detached retina, you should NOT use one. My wife has one, and I saw that warning while I was setting it up. So I don’t get to use it. Pity, since she claims great relief from her lower back pain. What brand were they offering? Her’s is a LifeGear. ETA: To **Absolute** : Yes, you hang upside down (inverted, get it?). ---
**Author:** ![BorgHunter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@BorgHunter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BorgHunter)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/4 "2009-11-28T14:47:43Z")
Seems [pretty risky](http://wellnessletter.com/html/wl/2001/wlAskExperts0901.html) (second question). For whatever reason, there seems to be an awful lot of snake oil surrounding back pain; it’s one of the things that scammers love to claim they can fix, and usually cannot. ETA: The Mayo Clinic [also agrees with this assessment](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/inversion-therapy/AN01614). ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/5 "2009-11-28T17:06:47Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > ETA: To **Absolute** : Yes, you hang upside down (inverted, get it?). Yes, I know what inversion means. The thing she has couldn’t really be called a table, though. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/6 "2009-11-28T18:29:23Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > Seems [pretty risky](http://wellnessletter.com/html/wl/2001/wlAskExperts0901.html) (second question). For whatever reason, there seems to be an awful lot of snake oil surrounding back pain; it’s one of the things that scammers love to claim they can fix, and usually cannot. > > ETA: The Mayo Clinic [also agrees with this assessment](http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/inversion-therapy/AN01614). Interesting stuff! I don’t have eye problems (or at least didn’t when I had my last exam this summer) but I do have mild hypertension. No back problems either, fortunately, aside from the occasional muscle spasm. I wasn’t especially in a rush to buy one, but having tried it, it made me curious. I suspect I’d be more likely to shell out the cash for one of the fancy mattresses (Tempur Pedic). ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 6:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/7 "2009-11-29T06:49:39Z")
> [@BorgHunter](#): > > For whatever reason, there seems to be an awful lot of snake oil surrounding back pain; it’s one of the things that scammers love to claim they can fix, and usually cannot. Heh, that’s pretty funny, as mainstream medicine has a pretty poor record as well. I have been told there is nothing they can do for me, and I count myself lucky. I know a girl who has had numerous surgeries, and each one seems to make the problem _worse_. Of course the doctors are making their swimming pool payments, so it’s all good. ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/8 "2009-11-29T20:09:37Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Heh, that’s pretty funny, as mainstream medicine has a pretty poor record as well. I have been told there is nothing they can do for me, and I count myself lucky. I know a girl who has had numerous surgeries, and each one seems to make the problem _worse_. Of course the doctors are making their swimming pool payments, so it’s all good. If mainstream medicine has a poor record fixing something that’s because it’s difficult to do. It also means there are more people in the population with that problem than there would be if effective treatments existed. Both conditions mean that an alternative “cure” is more likely to be a scam. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/9 "2009-11-29T21:23:00Z")
My mother used to “hang” herself in the closet–thick canvas straps around the back of her head and under her chin, it was kind of a harness. She installed a bar for the purpose (but not, unfortunately, a fun trapeze bar, just a plain old bar). It must have done something, she did it a lot. This was for neck adjustment and lower back pain. At some point her chiropractor recommended an inversion table instead. He had one. She apparently did not go all the way over, it was more like a slantboard. She wanted to get a home one but was over the weight limit of the cheap one, and too cheap for the expensive one. ---
**Author:** ![aruvqan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aruvqan/32/2891_2.png) [@aruvqan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aruvqan)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/10 "2009-11-29T21:34:59Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > My mother used to “hang” herself in the closet–thick canvas straps around the back of her head and under her chin, it was kind of a harness. She installed a bar for the purpose (but not, unfortunately, a fun trapeze bar, just a plain old bar). > > It must have done something, she did it a lot. This was for neck adjustment and lower back pain. > > At some point her chiropractor recommended an inversion table instead. He had one. She apparently did not go all the way over, it was more like a slantboard. She wanted to get a home one but was over the weight limit of the cheap one, and too cheap for the expensive one. My mom did that back in the 50s, she got whiplash in a car accident. I assume it worked because she stopped before I got old enough to see her do it [I remember she had mentioned hanging herself in a closet for whiplash for a while back in the 50s before I was born. This was back when inversion boots first got popular back in the 90s and they were in commercials on TV. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/11 "2009-11-29T23:30:55Z")
> [@yoyodyne](#): > > If mainstream medicine has a poor record fixing something that’s because it’s difficult to do. It also means there are more people in the population with that problem than there would be if effective treatments existed. Both conditions mean that an alternative “cure” is more likely to be a scam. “Mainstream medicine can’t find a cure. So any non-mainstream solution is most likely fake”? A much more scientific method would be to find studies about inversion tables, or, barring that, make your own. Inductive logic alone is not science, and shouldn’t be touted as such. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/12 "2009-11-29T23:37:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > “Mainstream medicine can’t find a cure. So any non-mainstream solution is most likely fake”? > > A much more scientific method would be to find studies about inversion tables, or, barring that, make your own. Inductive logic alone is not science, and shouldn’t be touted as such. Who’s calling logic science? Not **yoyodyne**. That doesn’t make the logic incorrect. If something is non-mainstream, chances are it’s non-mainstream because it doesn’t work. If it worked, everyone would be doing it, and it would be…mainstream! ---
**Author:** ![yoyodyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/a9a28c/32.png) [@yoyodyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yoyodyne)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2009, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/13 "2009-11-29T23:45:21Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > “Mainstream medicine can’t find a cure. So any non-mainstream solution is most likely fake”? Well, yes. And your use of “solution” is begging the question. > [@](#): > > A much more scientific method would be to find studies about inversion tables, or, barring that, make your own. Inductive logic alone is not science, and shouldn’t be touted as such. Mainstream medicine is science. Making my own table wouldn’t be scientific one way or the other. If there were valid scientific studies showing inversion tables were a solution mainstream medicine would use them as an effective treatment. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2016, 4:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/inversion-tables-whats-the-straight-dope/519197/15 "2016-07-16T04:59:09Z")
Not sure if that’s a whoosh, or do you really not know what snake oil is? It’s made by the same folks who make bugle oil and blinker fluid.