With all our societal fear and anxiety, sensory deprivation and float therapy seem to have found a new popularity amongst healthcare professionals helping others to cope with physical and mental wellness. Floating, in combination with chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage therapy, occupational therapy, orthopedists, nurse practitioners, pain specialists (as well as psychiatric and social work practices), can leverage therapeutic value and work wonders as a tandem therapeutic approach. Practitioners who recommend float therapy for their patients are seeing better and longer lasting outcomes.

Musculoskeletal specialists know that when pain, inflammation, stress and injury affect the nervous system, mobilizing a troubled spot, massaging the surrounding muscles, using electrodes, dry needling or other modalities such as cold laser definitely helps the physical side but does little for the emotional component. Further, chronic pain keeps the brain in a fight or flight state of being, making it harder for the muscles to relax, and for the therapist to get deeper into the issue.

It’s the emotional side of pain that is often the hardest to manage. With any type of acute and chronic pain, one’s emotional state is always affected and tends to compound the perception of pain. Pain and emotions such as fear and anxiety share similar pathways in the brain and within the nervous system. 

When suffering with an injury, the unknowns of when you will be whole again haunt your sleeping and waking moments.  It is very common to experience anxiety, depression and decreased ability to manage stress.  There are also collateral implications on the immune system.  So, while medical and alternative medical treatment modalities can be highly effective in pain management, they can have an even greater impact by incorporating float therapy to address a few other important components.

Here are (only) 5 compelling reasons for healthcare practitioners to recommend float therapy as an adjunct to musculoskeletal treatment:

1. Floating “downregulates” the sympathetic nervous system through reduced sensory input, including gravity. This allows the practitioner to get deeper with passive therapies and the patient to be less tense/more receptive.  

2. Floating reduces systemic inflammation through both absorption of magnesium in the dissolved 1/2 ton of Epsom salts, in combination with a reduced production of cortisol from the adrenals. Along with less cortisol, more serotonin, dopamine and oxytocin are secreted. The implications here are obvious.  

3. Floating “breaks the cycle” by allowing the brain to rewire and “neuroplastically” adapt to dysfunctional nerve connections, while reinforcing new positive connections. This happens as a result of the “theta” brain state that one enters during their float, and the improvement in sleep hygiene that occurs for days after the float. Good sleep helps everything including mindfulness, emotional state and a reduction in the sensitization of pain. Multiple research studies have shown reductions in intensity and frequency of pain with floating, in addition to an improved emotional state. This allows one to partake in more home care exercises, further breaking the cycle.

4. Floating increases heart rate variability.  HRV is an important measure of stress. As HRV increases, along with the immune boosting  and anti-inflammatory effects of magnesium, reduced cortisol, and recovery through a weighting towards the parasympathetic state, the body heals through less stress and greater flow of vital energy.  This assists the practitioner’s treatment.

5. In a gravity-free environment of floating, one is able to breathe more freely through the rib cage. One can also move the extremities and neck in greater and pain free ranges of motion allowing for the practice of subtle postural corrections such as pelvic and shoulder blade stabilization exercises, or chin tucks, while floating.

   As a result of all of the above, and in combination with a health care provider, patients improve quicker and with better outcomes. Patients always appreciate the open- mindedness of their referring health practitioner and happy clients refer others.  

Author Dr. David Berv can be contacted at david@myfloatzone.com