Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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Why is mattress selection close to impossible for a anyone with low back pain? why are mattress makers using different names for the same mattresses in different stores? Why are they making it so hard to compare mattresses? Is this some kind of scam? Why is it that man has gone to moon but mattress makers can't make a mattress for people with low back pain? I have a herniated disk and wake up with aches and extremely tired every day. Life is hell or close to it. It can't get any worse. thanks for honest replies. This message was modified Jan 25, 2010 by lowbacpain
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Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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Budgy - WOW! That sounds like a really great mattress! May I ask what the asking price is? Not that I am going to drive to Canada and bring it home from your store, but just to have an idea in case a friend wants to buy such a mattress. Do they have a web site? That brings me to this question: Although right now my mattress seems to be Great, with the Talalay layer replacing the HR foam I had there, I wonder if it might be even better (though I'm not likely to change it any time soon!) if I had a different box spring. I am using my old Sealy box springs under my Englander springs/diy mattress. I never really felt that the box springs matter much, but I've heard it say that they can. I assume that if you had some really custom built mattress and box then it might well make a difference, but on a Sealy/Englander/etc. type set up, probably not. As I recall, these 7 year old or so Sealy Box Springs are just a box made from wood and on top is some kind of metal wire system going across it but basically it's wood, with maybe just a LITTLE give. I wonder if I should try putting something like a firm piece of wood in between me and the box springs. But what kind of wood would I use if I did? (this question is for the DIY'ers among us) I could try putting it on the floor one night but I really have NO place to store the box in the meantime if I do, I would literally have to stand it up in the living room and then move it back and forth til I decided! Anyway, just curious as to how you feel about cheap mattresses and their need for box springs? Until I had the Sealy I never even used a box spring, I just put the mattress on the floor. I never liked bed frames - the metal frame kind - either! Too bouncy for me. So I have the box springs sitting on the floor. Oh... one more question for Budgy: Why did the S companies give up completely on making good mattreses, in your opinion? What I mean is this: Okay, the wanted to make them cheaper so people would not get "sticker shock" and be able to still "get a good bed for $1000". Okay, fine. But what I don't get is, why couldn't they have at least made a bed something like mine (basic springs but with all latex on top instead of Peee-Yew foam and a cotton or wool top). Wouldn't that have been a quality product they could produce for not all that much more money? I mean, I'm only using 2" of latex on top of a VERY firm 1/2"layer of HR foam on the bottom (I wonder if this layer is even necessary). So I don't see why they wouldn't at least try to make something like this, with no pu foam in it? Wouldn't they be able to sell such a mattress at a price point that some people would pay? In other words, why throw out the baby with the bath water?! It seems they just threw in the towel and are not even TRYING to make long-lasting quality mattresses anymore, not even as a "top of the line" item. This message was modified Feb 2, 2010 by jimsocal
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Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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Kait wrote: Absolutely fascinating thread guys! Kait, what is the name of the company you got your mattress from again? Do they have a web site?Constant low back pain is so debilitating it is just awful. I suffered with it for a long time myself. I know exactly what you are talking about. Doctors sent me to physical therapists who hurt my ligaments with their testing, and promoted back exercises to help me strengthen my back. Did not help. I knew in my gut it was from the bed(s) I slept on. Went through quite a few, spent way too much money uselessly. Felt horribly frustrated. Where to turn...every bed promises what it does not deliver. I was going through new beds every three months. My husband thought I was kinda nuts, called me Princess and the Pea. Beds didn't bother him. Finally visited a hotel where to my great surprise, slept on a mattress that healed my back in two nights. It was amazing. I did my research and found it had offset coils, and a box spring with springs. It was an S brand, but I was not going to pay $5K for one similar to it, no way. I had one made to my specs. I like it, my back is good. I did not choose the foam that I knew I needed so have had to work with it a bit, but my mistake. Overall, great bed. Find a mom and pop bedmaker and get one made that you like. Or do mattress surgery if you have good coils and a brave soul. My mattress surgery result is at my stepdaughter's house...she loves the bed, but I did not care for marshall coils. Cutting it open did no damage other than cosmetic. As to why it is this way...profit, baby profit! It's all about right now, in hand, promise a better mousetrap, profit!!! They don't care about how we sleep really. Good luck. Kait Kait, I had the same problem as you: My back was killing me all the time and I was seeing massage therapists, physical therapists, chiropractors, acupuncturists, you name it. Went through about 5 mattresses none of which worked for me. My wife thought I was nuts, constantly changing mattresses. (Although, at least she was somewhat supportive as she didn't like most of them we tried, either!) But here's where we differ: I finally settled on pure foam. I didn't like latex as an all-foam mattress (tried a Flobeds), so I decided to make my own "flobed" out of HR foam.  We bought various layers of 1" HR foam and divided them into thirds so we could do zoning and I figured: "This HAS to work! There HAS to be some combination of ILD's of foams and zones that will work for me!" So this is when my wife really thought I was nuts (and I had to admit it did seem nutty!  ) I would change it almost every night sometimes, for weeks on end, then stay with something for a week or two that didn't hurt me TOO bad, then when it started hurting again I would do an overhaul. You probably remember at least some of this from a couple years back. Part of my constant changing of the mattress, I attribute to the fact that I was using too much memory foam, and lousy memory foam at that. I finally learned that lesson. But anyway, so where I differed from Kait was that I kept saying, "We DON'T need springs!" My wife kept saying we needed springs and I kept saying she was wrong and kept trying to make all-foam work for me. But then, when we went to springs, the Sealy we bought worked for awhile and then it quit working. That's when I did my first mattress surgery. But still I was using memory foam and too much of it so that wasn't working. Then I got it to working pretty well and about that time, the Sealy springs gave out, or seemed to. That led me to buying the Englander, and since then things have been much better, except for the last few months when my HR foam was dying. Wish I had bought a GOOD well-built mattress instead of wasting all my time with HR foam and all-latex mattresses. But actually I did look into a RoyalPedic at one point, but just could not afford it. Or would not spend the requested money for it, in any case... Now my mattress seems to be working great! Finally! ... All this because the S companies quit making good mattresses! This message was modified Feb 2, 2010 by jimsocal
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Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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jimsocal wrote: Budgy - WOW! That sounds like a really great mattress! May I ask what the asking price is? Not that I am going to drive to Canada and bring it home from your store, but just to have an idea in case a friend wants to buy such a mattress. Do they have a web site? That brings me to this question: Although right now my mattress seems to be Great, with the Talalay layer replacing the HR foam I had there, I wonder if it might be even better (though I'm not likely to change it any time soon!) if I had a different box spring. I am using my old Sealy box springs under my Englander springs/diy mattress. I never really felt that the box springs matter much, but I've heard it say that they can. I assume that if you had some really custom built mattress and box then it might well make a difference, but on a Sealy/Englander/etc. type set up, probably not. As I recall, these 7 year old or so Sealy Box Springs are just a box made from wood and on top is some kind of metal wire system going across it but basically it's wood, with maybe just a LITTLE give. I wonder if I should try putting something like a firm piece of wood in between me and the box springs. But what kind of wood would I use if I did? (this question is for the DIY'ers among us) I could try putting it on the floor one night but I really have NO place to store the box in the meantime if I do, I would literally have to stand it up in the living room and then move it back and forth til I decided! Anyway, just curious as to how you feel about cheap mattresses and their need for box springs? Until I had the Sealy I never even used a box spring, I just put the mattress on the floor. I never liked bed frames - the metal frame kind - either! Too bouncy for me. So I have the box springs sitting on the floor. Oh... one more question for Budgy: Why did the S companies give up completely on making good mattreses, in your opinion? What I mean is this: Okay, the wanted to make them cheaper so people would not get "sticker shock" and be able to still "get a good bed for $1000". Okay, fine. But what I don't get is, why couldn't they have at least made a bed something like mine (basic springs but with all latex on top instead of Peee-Yew foam and a cotton or wool top). Wouldn't that have been a quality product they could produce for not all that much more money? I mean, I'm only using 2" of latex on top of a VERY firm 1/2"layer of HR foam on the bottom (I wonder if this layer is even necessary). So I don't see why they wouldn't at least try to make something like this, with no pu foam in it? Wouldn't they be able to sell such a mattress at a price point that some people would pay? In other words, why throw out the baby with the bath water?! It seems they just threw in the towel and are not even TRYING to make long-lasting quality mattresses anymore, not even as a "top of the line" item. www.greensleep.ca but their website is way out of date. The Vimala sleep system they show on their is all latex and is still probably their nicest mattress overall. but these newer coil mattresses are very new and they have yet to put the info on their own website. I will maybe PM you a link someday when I have updated our own site so you can read more about it. with the base system that is recommended for it the queen set should be around 4400 CDN and USD. so its pretty expensive. The firmer version of it with less latex and a slightly more simple base construction would be closer to 3600 I believe. I have yet to put the other 2 models out yet as I need to clear out some other stock at the moment. And yeah they definitely COULD make an all latex top in a coil mattress for marginally more money than what they currently build. it maybe wouldn't have a pillowtop and the look of a 1500 bed but I think it would be worth it. The one I got my local supplier to make for us with 3" of latex on top of a good quality marshall spring we sell @ 1399 every day, in the US something like that should be even a little less I would imagine. Granted people that buy coil beds like to have a recognizable name on the product, I bet I would sell more of them if people were not so concerned about the lack of a large companies label on the mattress. This is why I have asked S brand companies to build this for me in the past, but I was told not to expect it to happen for a while. EDIT: Sorry, I missed your Q about the bases. They are somewhat irrelevant with most of todays mattresses. I personally think a better bet than using a board on your existing base is to simply use the mattress only on a solid platform bed. Eliminate the chance of a boxspring failing on you and causing potential problems down the road. This message was modified Feb 2, 2010 by budgy
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Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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Hey, Jimsocal... I left you a message in your folder...A Better Bed in Fresno. Website not informative. Bill is a good guy. Kait |
Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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budgy wrote: i think they are probably going to be high 2000's or so to start.(that could be for the organic version though that would cost more) but thats a far cry better than the over $5000 for the Shifman queen I found. yeah actually I just found a place that sells it. http://organicsleepproducts.com/rp-all-cotton-mattress-set.html Budgy, the Shifmans are significantly marked up on the Bloomie's web site - they typically sell at 40-60% of 'retail,' so the one you are referring to, which I think is the Chateau I asked you about, can be gotten for around $3,000. In light of that, do you still think the Royal-pedic prevails -- i.e., assuming the price were comparable, which bed is better in terms of quality, durability, performance, etc.? Also, for those interested in Royal-pedic, Royal-pedic sells direct and what I like about them is that they are straight shooters on price - unlike other traditional manufacturers, they don't seem to mark up the 'retail' price only to sell them at a steep discount. But having tried some of their beds, I found the all-cotton ones to be rock hard without the latex topper. |
Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
| At a level playing field on price I am gonna say its a toss up and you should at that point simply go for whatever feels best. I was kind of assuming any mattress that uses all cotton batting is going to be pretty firm. If the Shifman feels better though and you can get it for the same than its probably the better choice for YOU, I don't have any reason to believe there would be a significant difference in quality either way. |
Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
| Alice, that bed you bought sounds really nice. Can you post for us the entire contents of the bed as disclosed on the label sewn onto the bed? |
Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
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You bet, I'll go home and tell you. Some kind of polyester? Alice |
Re: Why is there infinite trouble selecting a mattress for person with low back pain?
| It would be best if you start a new thread with the name and model of your bed, and start with all the contents of the bed as shown on the label. Please follow up with how it feels over several nights/weeks and how well it reduces your body pain. |