Did you know…the key to enhancing mental clarity and avoiding dementia may be to reverse your thought process—literally!
Has anyone ever told you that the best way to solve a problem is to come at it from a different angle? Well, some people are interpreting that advice quite literally and having great success. 
Inversion therapy—the act of hanging upside down, performing a headstand, or using a simple surface to lie at an inverted angle—is in fast becoming the hottest new treatment. Its legions of fans include celebrities Dan Brown and Rosie O’Donnell, to name just a few. Inversion is said to relieve…
- Depression
- Mood swings
- Insomnia
- Stress
Long-term practitioners also say that daily inversion has a powerful impact on their health and well-being. Such benefits are all the more impressive considering how little time inversion therapy requires.
Make Your Brain Better, Turn It Upside Down
According to Dr. Robert Martin, an early proponent of inversion therapy and the author of The Gravity Guiding System: Turning the Aging Process Upside Down, the brain operates 14% more accurately when your body is an inverted or inclined plane.
Regular inversion, Dr. Martin and other experts say, improves your concentration, memory, observation and clarity of thought. Put simply, inverting your brain makes it better.
Dr. Karen Koffler, director of Integrative Medicine at Northwestern University, says inversion therapy boosts brain health by increasing blood flow. “If there is increased blood flow to the area, there will be increased bio availability of oxygen and glucose, the two most important metabolic substrates for the brain,” she says.
Proven Protection from the Horrors of Dementia
Recent clinical research focused on these increases in blood flow, and subsequent availability of oxygen and glucose. These studies showed that inversion therapy can…
- Improve mental agility by increasing the flow of oxygen to the brain
- Relieve depression by enhancing blood and cerebral spinal fluid flow, thus oxygenating more brain cells
- Increase blood flow to the brain, giving it more oxygen…nutrients…and helping it function more efficiently
Stop Aging of the Brain in its Tracks
Inversion therapy may even play a serious role in arresting the brain’s “aging process.” Peter Russell M.A., D.C.S. (an expert on the science consciousness and personal development), commented on this link in his internationally renowned 2010 book, The Brain Book.
Much of mental deterioration, he wrote, can be traced to poor blood pressure and hardening of the arteries, both of which reduce oxygen flow. Thus, with regular inversion therapy, we can overcome these risk factors and keep the mind from sliding into dementia.
The Basics of Inversion Therapy
Experts advise four general options for practicing inversion therapy:
- Yoga-based postures: Headstands and other head-down postures
- Gravity boots: These boots fit around the ankles and hook onto a horizontal bar for hanging upside down
- Yoga sling: Like a trapeze, a yoga sling is used invert from the lower torso or upper legs.
- Inversion table: Such a device allows a user to start out standing up vertically then gently rotate backward to a suspended inverted position.
For beginners, headstands, gravity boots, and slings can be challenging. Experts say that inversion tables, by contrast, are easy to use and offer a high level of support and comfort. All four methods will facilitate the same great benefits, so choose whichever best fits you and your lifestyle.
