reducerefluxatnight.com

Having been diagnosed with Silent GERD, I began an internet search for what caused my disease and how I could treat it.  Every web site that I visited said that the head of a set of bedding should be elevated in  order to allow gravity to help keep the contents of the stomach in their place.  Most sites recommended placing blocks or bricks under the headboard in order to accomplish this.  Having been involved with the manufacturing of mattresses and box springs for the past 20 years, I knew that raising the head of the be in this manner would void the manufacturer’s 20 year, non-prorated warranty.  The bedding companies also employ inspectors to go to a person’s house in order to find reasons to deny the claim that a mattress is sagging.  (If you do not believe me, go to monster.com and search for bedding inspector!)  These inspectors are trained to look for depressions in the carpet in order to deny the claim.

There had to be a better way.  I looked at dozens of foam bed wedges and wedge pillows on the internet and they all were of the same design: on top of the mattress, they were all narrow, they forced the purchaser to change their sleep position, forced to not sleep surface that they purchased for their level of comfort and you may not be able to use the big fluffy pillow that you are used to.  Most troublesome of all was that sleeping on a foam bed wedge would cause the patient to bed at their waist which could actually put additional pressure on their stomach and make their night time reflux worse!

I started with a wedge that would traverse half of the length of a mattress, but that might lead to the border wire of the mattress being bent and cause permanent damage to the mattress.  I then evolved to creating a wedge that would be the same length and width of a mattress and support it from head to toe.  The benefits of this design would be to:

Raise the head of you set of bedding in order to allow gravity to work in keeping stomach contents in their place.

You could sleep in any position that you want, back, stomach or side.

Sleep on your mattress and not be forced to adjust to another sleep surface.

Use the pillow that you are used to.

The final design was approved as a medical device by the FDA.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 11:10 am and is filed under Night Time Acid Indigestion Reducing Medical Device. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.