Back pain strikes thousands of people all over the world daily. The use of inversion tables has become more popular to help treat back pain and improve overall back and spine health is a popular remedy that has been in existence for much longer than many of us realize. However, the question that most often arises is do inversion tables work?

As early as 400 B.C. Hippocrates, also known as the Father of Medicine, is known to have used ropes and pulleys to suspend a patient suffering from back pain. Gravity was the key ingredient in the treatment, allowing the joints of the body to naturally decompress and ease pain.

Since then, inversion therapy and the benefits of inversion tables have gone through multiple incarnations across the world, becoming widely recognized in the United States during the 1960s thanks to a California doctor named Robert Martin. Martin created the “Gravity Guidance System,” which used the effects of gravity on the human body as a remedy for everything from back pain to poor posture.

The development of the Gravity Guidance inversion table by Dr. Martin in the 1970s led to the increasing popularity of inversion, which reached new heights during the 1980s with the invention of gravity boots and multiple manufacturers of other types of inversion equipment. Throughout the years, the medical community went back and forth on whether or not inversion was indeed a successful pain treatment. Eventually, they concluded that any fears about inversion therapy were greatly exaggerated, and that inversion caused no harm to the body and could, in fact, do some good.

With these findings, inversion came back into fashion in the 1990s and is now a fairly popular health market, with many people swearing that it’s the ultimate way to eliminate pain. Inversion enthusiasts all over the world tout it as ideal for all age and fitness levels, and a great way to help with chronic back and joint problems that cannot be fixed by other methods. Always be sure to consult a doctor before taking any medical advice.