The Right Bed

On the morning of the start of Total Food Makeover, and two days before the scheduled Skin Care Party (likely to be re-scheduled), you would think I would be targeting some information about food, or chemicals being slathered on faces. But instead, here I am writing about beds… mattresses.

It might be the most common question I get regarding outside of the office healthcare expenses (yes, beds are healthcare… your spine is the most important BASIS for health, thus your bed is the most important place you spend any time). Supplements, simple – juice plus and fish oil until you are eating enough omega 3. Exercise – CrossFit, or other short bursts of high intensity exercise. Beds – not so easy.

The description of the bed that you should use is not so hard, but in practice, finding the right one just for you, a little more difficult. Now complicate things by getting married, and you are in a difficult place when it comes to finding just the right bed. The first step though, is to get away from those springs. Or if you HAVE to go with a spring mattress, make sure it is really firm. So lets get to the recommendations.

First off, think solid. You want a solid core for your mattress. These usually come with some kind of rubber based core, and often will be a little thinner than what you are used to in spring mattresses. Oh, for my kids we just use springs, we’ll change those over once they get into that 100 # range, so it might be awhile. Same can apply to you and your kids depending on how much you/they weigh.

So the solid core minimizes the amount of dipping that will happen at the hips. An example of a solid core that I do not like, is tempur pedic. They are making strides in the right direction, but they have too much give right now. Other examples of solid core mattresses, include the air chambers that come in the Sleep Number Bed as well as the new Nikken Mattresses (I sleep on a Nikken mattress that is 10 years old, and is still very solid). These air chambers, though not solid, are surrounded by a solid core, and have the ability to mimic solid. They might break down sooner than they should (I don’t know this), but at least they have good potential. So I have tried to find the best deal in solid core beds, because usually, the nice ones are expensive (these two companies can easily charge $5,000 or more for their top beds. Worth it, but if you can find something comparable for less, you’ll probably appreciate it. One such contender, is the healthy foundations bed. With a 10” memory foam mattress (but more stable and supportive than tempur pedic), this company has a good product, and it has an incredible guarantee. Can you imagine blindly buying a mattress online, with no idea if you will like it or not? Sounds crazy. But what if that company gave you a a 365 day warranty on their bed, and instead of costing $5,000 it was only $1700? And now they ship it to you for free? Seems too good to be true, but that is what they do at this company! HealthyFoundations.com will also make it easy to return the mattress for a $75 cost. The reason why I am happy about this mattress over the tempur pedic mattress even though they are both memory foam. This one is hard. Actually, upon reading customer reviews, a decent number said it was too hard, to which I would say, good! You’ll get used to it, and your spine matters more. So go more firm. I hope the information is useful for many of you, and for those who are not in the market, considering firming up the existing mattress. A couple easy steps. 1. Add a board under your mattress between it and the box springs. 2. Add a 2-4” memory foam topper to reduce the pressure points. 3. Sleep well! I look forward to seeing all of you at food makeover tonight! Be well and supported – Dr. E