PainBC
The Benefits of Flotation Therapy/REST for Chronic Pain with Mike Zaremba
Source:
https://www.spreaker.com/user/painwaves/mikezaremba
Curious about Flotation Therapy and how it can help with chronic pain? We chat to Float House (floathouse.ca) co-founder Mike Zaremba about how Flotation Therapy/Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) works, the research around benefits for chronic pain management, common misconceptions around flotation, meditation, and more!
Research:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08870440412331337093
https://www.painbc.ca/resources/links/effectsflotationrestmuscletensionpain
https://www.painbc.ca/resources/links/effectsflotationreststressrelatedmusclepain
https://www.painbc.ca/resources/links/effectsflotationreststressrelatedailments
https://www.painbc.ca/resources/links/whatmakesdifferenceflotationtherapy
[Music] welcome to the pain waves podcast by pain BC the show where listeners can tune in and hear from leading experts on persistent pain as we discuss the very latest in pain management research stories tools Trends and more I'm your host Geraldine Elliot part of the pain BC communication and marketing team and before we begin today's episode of the podcast I wanted to share a little bit more about PBC for some of our firsttime listeners PBC is a collaborative nonprofit made up of people in pain healthc care providers and leaders from government universities business and partnering nonprofits we share a passion for reducing the burden of pain while creating awareness of this all to Common problem PBC knows that living with chronic pain is something that can be isolating debilitating and demoralizing providing care for those and pain can also be confusing or frustrating at pain BC we want to change this we want to talk honestly about pain and remove the stigma we feel that nobody should be alone with pain if you want to learn more or grab any resources to help please visit our website at pain bc. just to note too that the content provided on our show is for informational purposes only so it's not intended to be any kind of substitute for professional medical advice diagnosis treatment or care we encourage everyone to seek the advice of their qualified Healthcare Pro provider if they have any questions about the content of the show so on today's episode we're talking to Mike Zera he's co-founder of Float House in Vancouver thanks so much for being on the show today Mike ah thanks for having me pleas pleasure to be here so Mike's a local you're a local entrepreneur and you opened the first commercial and publicly available Float Center in Vancouver in over 20 years um I believe you're also an avid Pro practitioner of yoga and meditation and you have a master's degree in human kinetics from UVC so that's that's quite the package um so can you give tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background I've given the brief overview but if you can tell us a little bit more about who you are yeah sure no I'm I'm not uh born in Vancouver or native to the West Coast but I I've been living here now since um 2009 indefinitely I was out here for that stint of grad school in 2005 for a couple years so it was after that uh experience um that I did some traveling went back to Ontario where I'm originally from from for a year and a half and then I decided to come out here definitely and uh grow some Roots here so um and I you know I love living out here I love Vancouver I love the surrounding area camping getting on to Nature things like that um working obviously is a as a huge passion of mine being a part of this industry and being um kind of in the the Grassroots of it basically and doing a lot of educating around flotation therapies and um yeah you know I got my my immediate families out here now and just enjoy staying active and uh socializing with them and then just enjoying uh what we have within the city here so yeah awesome so today we're we're really going to be talking about flotation therapy so can you give us and our listeners a brief overview of what flotation therapy actually is yeah absolutely um well basically flotation therapy can go by a few different names um it's quite often referred to as floating and um this practice which we call it in in kind of within the industry is something that occurs inside a device known as a float tank a float tank is also known as a isolation tank or a sensory deprivation tank it's got a few different names out there um because a float tank um well it hasn't been around sorry it's been around for a while and it's gone through different periods of his existence and actually the first float tank was invented back in the the mid 1950s by a um a medical doctor named Dr John C Lily and basically uh floating um in a float tank has about 10 inches of water and we put approximately 900 to 1,000 pounds of pharmaceutical grade Epson Sals into that water so it becomes dissolved and makes this solution that's very dense so that when the person lies down in the float tank which and the tank itself is a large it's like a large tub basically that's enclosed um and then there's different types of float tanks there's float tanks um that are a little bit smaller in size and there's ones that are float pods that are look a little bit more futuristic kind of like an egg Dome shape and then there's ones that are actually called float cabins which are quite more volumous and you can physically stand up inside so um they it's all for the same reason in terms of the environment that it's um creating but they have a little different stylistic designs based off the manufacturer okay so this 10 inch this 10inch body of water lots of salt in there makes it very dense so that when you lie in it you float effortlessly literally every square millimeter of the user's body is supported because of this dense solution um that the device being enclosed creates a light proof environment meaning that is very dark once the hatch or the door is closed um some devices have lights inside that you can turn on and off as per needed um and most tanks as well ALS also have um audio capabilities meaning that sound can be brought in um whether it's like a guided meditation or some sort of ambient noise just to help calm and relax people but uh the traditional environment is done um in silence and when the user is floating on the surface of the water half of of their body is submersed and half is above the water line so the ears are actually under the water typically with earplugs and that creates a very quiet environment because of the water being in the ears the user being inside the tank and then quite often in a commercial Float Center the tank should be in a very sound insulated room as well so we go to lots of degrees to um to work towards sound deadening properties um and so all that you really hear left is your heart heart beat and you're breathing so you do still hear things it's just all internally derived noises yeah unless you're having an audio float yeah and then finally the water is heated to the same temperature of as the surface of one's skin which is slightly cooler than core temperature our core temperature um is obviously like what you know people will measure when they're doing like you know seeing whe if they have a fever or something but the skin temperature is slightly cooler and so we try to match that really closely with the water temperature and the reason being is that way the boundary between the water and the person's skin is hard to tell what it is it kind of matches and synchronizes that boundary kind of dissolves um making it's a very unique experience so and the user is also floating in the nude it's best done in the nude um it's more hygienic that way and it's also um uh better for the sensory deprived experience because if he had fibric on like a bathing suit or or straps or whatever you'd feel those pressure marks or you'd feel that fabric on your skin so the whole point of this elaborate environment is to reduce as much external sensory input from coming into the central nervous system as possible and this creates a very uh reliable and predictable physiological reaction within our bodies and also a uh a reaction in our brains as well into our nervous system so um and ultimately that reaction is a very calm relaxation induced response and this has been showing through research to have a plethora benefit so in a nutshell that's basically what um floating and flotation therapy is yeah so it's I like you said it has been around for a while but it's you know something that's definitely gaining a lot of traction and interest and that because of you know some of those effects that it has and and the the the therapy involved there as well so how how did you get into this I mean it's it's pretty unusual so what what led you into the field of flotation therapy yeah I mean like most people I didn't know it existed it didn't really it wasn't something that in common dialogue or discourse these devices weren't around at all and I'm 35 now and so there's been you know there was an initial um awareness and a little bit of an industry back in the 70s 80s early 90s and then it kind of all died off it just went away so kind of pre- Internet it just disappeared um and there's different theories as to what happened within the industry and the people that are still around from that era but um regardless the last five years really it's made this really huge comeback and because of the ability of the internet to spread information so fast it's uh it's got on people's radar and also this this day and age is much more holistically orientated and looking for different Alternatives um to to treat things and I just kind of stumbled upon it on the internet uh five years ago I was kind of doing um a YouTube search you know Discovery Journey if you will and um op po these flow tanks and and I I saw this video and I'm like wow that sounds really interesting I wonder what that would feel like what it would it feel like to go into that experience um and at that time the video I watched wasn't really talking about the different researched benefits of floating it was more talking about the environment uh from a meditation aspect and an introspective aspect and so the part of me that's really into yoga and meditation was very curious and so I sought one out there was a lady in Port kutum who had a tank in her basement she also had a inhome massage therapy practice and her husband had a float tank and so she would let people use this float tank so I found it online and went and had a float and after one float um decided to split a tank with my brother my brother Al also went and tried at one time he's my co co-founder co-founding partner at float house and we decided to buy our own tank and that's when um by end of that year end of 2010 we had it in my condo in North Vancouver we had it set up we started actually hosting people from my condo via Facebook and a cheap little website we made um and we started floating ourselves a ton wow um and that's where like I kind of learned a lot about how to manage the tank how to host the float properly so how to get set people for a successful experience but then also putting a lot of hours in the tank myself so I can start to explain what's happening and having a background in human kinetics uh with exercise physiology and just you know anatomy and physiology in general it was really cool I was able to apply that you know education background to what was happening with um you know the physiology of somebody inside a float tank and basically stress physiology is what we're looking at and um and central nervous system things so that's kind of my story of how I got into it interesting so it sort of Blended you know it was kind of a chance thing but then it Blended the interest and the and the um background that you already had in the education so sounds like sounds like it's a a good combination of all those things that that you uh that you're interested in um so you've given us a bit of an idea of what it looks like and what it feels like so um I think maybe we can probably Circle back to some of that a little bit again but um you know what a because obviously you know for our audience we're focused on chronic pain um so you know what would you say you know having been through this journey and with your you know the way that you've kind of seen it work um what are some of the key benefits of this type of therapy for people who are living with chronic pain yeah so the float tank is showing to have uh really good results um in terms of stress related muscle tension chronic pain so any anything that's um is causing the muscles to be super tense locked up um and this chronic tension related pain the flo tank is having really tremendous response with that um in terms of like specific uh ailments um one that is very popular amongst our users uh is people with fibromyalgia um is uh something that we see quite often and and obiously lower back pain and and chronic back pain um people are getting a lot of relief um in the float tank and it's kind of interesting as how it happens um you know the float environment is obviously very physically relaxing being supported um in a solution so uh reducing all the effects of gravity is very uh releasing for the muscles um absorbing the epon salts while you're in the float also help encourages F of muscle relaxation and then you do start to get a slight tractioning of of the of the muscles in the body as well the joints will decompress um and then the sensory reduced element of the environment has this um parasympathetic nervous system activation response U which helps to suppress the stress response and suppress stress hormones and if we have elevated levels of stress hormones in our body we are going to perceive pain more frequently we're going to perceive pain more intensely our perception of pain is dramatically affected by stress hormones so when we flush away the stress hormones via VIA this sense reduced environment um the perception of pain is dramatically reduced as well so we kind of get a two-pronged effect we get the central nervous system calming effect and then we also get this um uh physical relaxation by being supported in the solution so yeah so that's basically um how it's happening with chronic pain uh in the body so um in terms of some of the research that has been out they've been showing like a decreased num number of Comprehensive Pain areas so the number of areas you feel the pain is decreasing um the size of the area of pain perception of pain is decreasing U the frequency of the pain is decreasing and the severity of pain is decreasing and the cool thing is um this is showing to have long-term effects as well with the research now you will- experience results potentially after one session but most of this research is based off off of a series of floats so doing approximately 10 to 12 sessions um averaging one per week or one to two per week and the the the frequency of the use should vary based off the intensity of of someone's ailments basically so yeah that's kind of what's being supported uh empirically yeah so it's a you know it's like Mo a lot of therapies it's you know it it can have immediate relief and benefits but you're going to see more long-term benefits for you know having that sort of 10 to 12 session idea um so you know I'm sure like you mentioned fibromyalgia back pain you know I would assume for things like um tension headaches or migraines that whole dep deprivation would be I I get migraines so so I can I can just that's one of the things that helps me is definitely being in a you know in isolation and that so um so I'm assuming that that's also it's helpful for that as well um which is great yes and and also things along the lines of premenstrual syndrome um any types of cramping of that nature uh and people with pregnancy related uh issues as well leg cramps and back pain so um you know anything that's kind of getting into where the the muscles of someone's body are feeling pain um and and potentially Joy as well so that's where the nice thing about flotation therapy is that it is not contraindicating it can be used with other modalities other therapies other types of medications so it's something that can be applied uh in support and supplementation of whatever pain management practice somebody's doing oh so in terms of you know with um people with pain accessing something like flotation therapy what are some of the challenges that you think um people in pain might actually face in relation to kind of trying to incorporate flotation therapy into their pain overall pain management strategy yeah that's a great question um basically some challenges would be the user's mobility and how accessible they would be able to get in and out of of the float tank and like I was mentioning before there's different types of devices so if if you do have um you know more limited mobility issues it's best to contact whatever Float Center you're inquiring into and ask them what sorts what style of of tank or pod or cabin do they have um because people with different mobility issues will find accessing these different types easier than others so it's good to check that out and if you're really worried about it I would recommend actually making a visit there in person to see if you can physically do it or not or if you would need some sort of assistance um typically uh you know the float Center operator uh would would not be able to formally assist somebody um you know we're just not trained in that element yet I think that's something where this industry could definitely evolve as it as it grows in popularity and awareness is actually having formal like you know assistance ship within and out of the tank for different with different mobility issues yeah however you can totally bring somebody that you trust that is familiar with your Mobility if you need that assistance it can all be accommodated I'd say go in there in person and check it out yeah so access um is one thing physical access and then the other other real um potential uh challenge would just be people's um you know mindset going into this experience a lot of people get a little apprehensive at the notion of being in an enclosed environment but again seeing it in person you'll see that the float tank or whatever device it is they are quite large and spacious so it's not a very it's not a restricting thing at all it doesn't like compromise your your freedom your range of motion and your freedom of movement um so it's just the idea of being enclosed that you know can't be apprehensive for some people and and and this is a very common apprehension that we get and quite often what I say to them is like one know that you are always in control and we try to really Empower people to remember this that you are always in control and you can exit the experience whenever you want you don't you're not locked in there or forced in there by any means um two once you are inside and you can work with yourself with this environment like you can you don't have to you know go all in close the door and stay in there for the 60 or 90 minute experience um all at once like you can you know take breaks uh prop the door open um if the tank has a light leave the light on like you you know work with yourself for what you need there's no right or wrong way to do it and it's about being compassionate with oneself to to gain the trust in the experience to feel comfortable because that's what this is all about and once you kind of are able to get over that little mental hurdle if it is there for you that's when you start to let go and relax and go deeper into the therapy of the experience so those are probably the two biggest challenges I would probably most commonly see yeah so it sounds like it's it's you know like with any therapy it's sort of getting com comfortable with the concept and then really checking it out and you know really asking questions you know doing a consult all that kind of thing as well um totally yeah um yeah because it's something that I you know I've from just from a personal feeling is you know that because I do get a little claustrophobic it's sort of you know I would have questions around yeah like the space or you know how big is it or can I can I get out if I need to so I guess like you mentioned with the mobility issue you would need to make sure that that's something that you're comfortable with and and that you could you know you could EX it if you needed to or had that help to do that as well exactly exactly and so you know just setting yourself up for a successful experience and knowing uh what your needs are and you know and and I will say too like once you are inside however once you are in the float experience and the door is closed yes it's very dark but the experience is no different than closing your eyes at night when you're falling asleep yeah um and actually when you're in there you don't physically feel the the boundaries you don't feel the sides you don't feel the bottom because you're floating in the water and you have you can't see the sides or or the the the the the the environment on the inside so it actually feels much more expansive than restricting because you literally have no perceptions of boundaries even the per even the boundary perception of your body of your skin once you relax and settle in starts to dissolve as well so it can be this very opening sort of experience that uh people can have so it's just you know kind of getting to that space and working with yourself and what your needs are to to let yourself have that experience yeah so you mentioned this a little bit but I was wondering if we can talk a little bit more around the research or evidence to support the effectiveness of of flotation therapy so we will be I'll link to some of the research um that you've shared with me for our listeners uh within the the episode but um could you tell us a little bit more about some of the research and um um you know just some of the I guess the the studies that have really you know said yes this is a good thing yeah so there's been um uh several studies published there's a big group out of Sweden actually that is doing a lot of flotation research and and whenever you see come across these um these academic journals or these articles uh floating is or flotation therapy it's always referred to as rest and that's an acronym so it's reest for restricting environmental stimulation therapy or technique so um they'll always refer to it as rest and actually there's a there was before the Swedish group um there was this L of of research happening but there was a a good amount of body of research coming in before this more contemporary stuff out of Sweden and now there's also a research facility in Tulsa Oklahoma that's about a year or too old but they're kind of focusing more on Mental Health application specifically anxiety but the Swedish uh um research group was looking a lot of like like I said the muscle tension pain and The Chronic um tension uh sort of pains that you would see um however a lot of research was also done out of UBC um just so happens back in like the 80s and early 90s when during this earlier round of filation therapy with a with a doctor there named Dr Peter seld who's still around he's retired now but so he's not doing any research but he did a lot of research on rest the restricted environmental stimulation therapy um for both flotation rest which is inside of a float tank and then also chamber rest now he was a psychology researcher so he was U researching different things in terms of uh again the mental health applications anxiety um he was looking at addictions and how uh you know um uh the withdrawal symptoms could be reduced by going into rest environments and things like that so um so most of the the pain ones were were produced out of the Swedish um ones in terms of the most contemporary ones and um they are also looking into um how the pain is perceived you know like you can kind of look at pain and you can sure there's a physical component to it but there's also a very strong emotional and psychological component to it I mean it could be probably pretty clearly argued that all pain is psychosomatic meaning that when you feel pain it affects your emotions it affects your cognition and your your mindset as well and then your mindset and your emotions can actually affect the pain and the perception of pain so you know it's the psychosomatic concept of pain like it's really hard to isolate just the pain from someone's perception of the pain and their subjective experience of it and so that that's what they've been kind of looking at a lot too and that's why the float tank has been really um I think highlighted by this research Group is because it does address pain from both the psychological side of it and the phys physical physiological side of like with the hormones so that's what I find really interesting about the float tanks applications towards any type of chronic pain definitely and that's something that we've seen a lot in in the work that pain BC does and you know we we really support the idea of the bioc psychosocial model of treatment to pain so it sounds like flotation therapy is something that can help with multiple um I guess those multiple issues that surround chronic pain as well beyond the pain itself which is great absolutely like I mean as quite often someone with chronic pain could have be comorbid with depression yeah um you know because they've been in this painful State their lifestyle is is altered and that's that it's depressing it affects your mental state it affects your emotional state so um the float tank has a very unique application that it can affect both the emotional regulation of somebody as well as the you know addressing the stress hormones and the physiology of somebody and then plus the muscle uh and and the Bone and Joint decompression elements and muscle relaxation elements so it's got a multi-pronged effect towards treating um you know all the issues that we face or someone faces when they have chronic pain it's not just uh it's not just oh let's you know treat the ailment of or the injury where it is or where it feels like it's coming from it's because we know it's holistic and that's the beauty of like the kind of the way things are going in this day and age is this holistic mindset we know the mind and body are not separate the Mind dramatically affects the body um that's the whole notion behind epigenetics and how the cells can be affected the DNA of a cell can actually be affected by the environment that is in you cannot separate the human being from the environment um and so that is obviously what the flow tank is all about it's all about the environment the environment is the medicine yeah interesting so if someone's listening right now and they're kind of on the fence you know how would they know whether or not this is something that is right for them well I mean I think do you know you probably got a lot of information out of this podcast but do some more research whether it's on uh different websites just or just Googling float tanks and you'll find lots of things do YouTube research videoos um you know there the information is out there so if you still want some more information uh in terms of what it's all about you can you know cross reference this podcast with that like I was saying if you go to that link that you have with the research papers there's the more like data heavy stuff of like what's happening but I think ultimately you want to just go and uh go check it out go go and give them a call or go and visit a float s be like hey can I take a look at these things can you show me what it's all about and how how it kind of works because that'll give you an idea of what to expect you know you don't have to go into this thing blind um that's that's why we've you know that that's why we we wanted to create uh this industry because I believe in what floating and flotation therapy how it can help people and so at this point and stage of it you know the only way you can access a float tank is through the commercial setting at this point in time um and I'm hoping that will change I I believe enough in this therapy that it should be more accessible but that's why I'm doing this podcast that's why I'm doing what I'm doing because I'm trying to just educate people on flotation therapy because I know it can help a lot of people um I'm not saying it's a pan or anything like that but it definitely has no side effects and it can definitely help people to one degree or another if they can give it a shot so you know I say skepticism is healthy go with it but I also say too that as we alluded to you can feel effects off of one float but there is is a learning curve and an accumulation effect with floating yeah meaning that you get better at doing it you get more comfortable with the experience with the ritual of the experience and you will be able to um get more out of it so the accumulating effects is that regular usage like anything like any type of therapy any type of practice um having one usually isn't going to do it you have to work with it and work with yourself within that and and consistency and regularity to it um seem to have the the best outcomes most often yeah so I know you mentioned um that it's been used uh in women who are pregnant so obviously it's safe for that uh you've you've mentioned fibromyalgia patients um can you share with our listeners some any other kind of examples or positive stories of people who you've seen benefit from um from actually trying it out and and going through the sessions yeah absolutely um one of those ones we see quite often in our centers and it's really to No Surprise is concussions and and uh postconcussion treatment concussions um can cause very long-term debilitating effects on people and that the different side effects of a concussion can linger for a long time now there's no formal research with float tanks and concussion but uh the anecdotal evidence I see all the time in our center from different people who have had concussion issue issues or whiplash injuries as well um coming in and finding the flo tank ofir very helpful um and it makes a lot of sense in post you know immediate postconcussion treatment is all about desensitization so like don't be blasting music don't be reading a a lot intensely don't have super bright lights so it's all about reducing stimuli and reducing stimulation on the brain we have to let the brain relax and and and heal um so it makes sense that the float environment is very relieving for these people who are having these ongoing uh concussion syndrome issues um and so that's been one and then like um I mentioned before uh people with chronic back pain um I had back surgery a few years ago uh about a year after we had opened for a herni the disc and um I found tremendous relief uh as the first thing I was ble to do once I was able to to start walking and get into a car again um as soon as I could I went down for a float that was like the first therapy treatment I did posts surgery um before I started the physio or anything like that uh was go for a float and it was just such a nice relief because everything got so stiff from lying for so long not being able to have any range of motion obviously there's scar tissue that was uh impinging Mobility so being able to just go be supported by the Sol ution by the water and just feel this gentle I call it my it was I the way I described it when I finished that first float once I finish surgery was like a gentle Cosmic attraction I felt like I was in space and it was just like the most gentle like pulling apart of my spine but so nourishing and it was just felt so relieving the relief after that Flo was tremendous so people U post surgery especially you know back if once they're move Mobility you know again you have to be able to get in and out of these things um is there then I think they can find a lot of relief and we've talked a a little bit about you know you talked a little bit about people find you know being apprehensive about kind of the space and that claustrophobia kind of question but um you know I'm sure having worked in this for a while now you must come up with across you know any you know a lot of possibly misconceptions or myths that are out there about flotation therapy because it's you know we've it's been around in different guises and we might have heard about it but it's a bit mysterious um so what are some of the things that you've encountered yeah one one of those like back and I'm not sure where this original myth came from but we've had it from especially from like an older demographic say like isn't you know sensory deprivation a form of torture um and it's just not true and in Ence it's all and it's also all about the intention and the application you know so if if um being reduced against your will and being in isolation against your will yeah that can probably be very distressing for people however when it's you know acknowledged and and someone pursuing it on their own behalf and then being set up for a successful experience giving all the tips and pointers um you know it really is not uh something some form of torture or stress inducing experience at all in fact it's quite the opposite it's extremely relaxing and the whole environment does have this very reliable calming effect on the central nervous system um that's that's probably one of the biggest myths is that just that overall myth that it's the scary scary thing and really it it it so isn't like um the apprehension is very normal but once people I've had you know children as young as eight years old go and use it and and people in their 80s use use it and everyone in between and all types of people as well so I know that you know anyone who brings themselves to work compassionately with themselves in the space uh to whatever degree that means for them they can they can use it and and ultimately the space is just a really beautiful environment to let you or the user have a really intimate experience with yourself I call it like going on an intimate date with yourself because you're Rec connecting with your body and with your emotions and your mind um and the sensations of your body so whether you know and at first like all those Sensations maybe all that pain that you feel could be very highlighted but then the environment will encourage that relaxation and as you start to relax that's where the pain can subside and and the muscles and um the different joints can start to relax and and that pain can really start to dissolve away and the beauty of it is there's no you know you can go in there you can't overdose on floating like you can do it every day you can do it for hours and it's not going to be a problem you know so it really is just a great holistic compliment alternative form of medicine yeah and so I mean you've kind of mentioned this as one of the I guess challenges in in that it is still in a commercial setting uh so I'm not sure within kind of your experience have you seen um you know can the fees for flotation therapy be covered under a medical plan or you know um is this something that you know when ICBC is involved this is something that can be covered or can you tell us a little bit more about that from your experience there's nothing formally set out by any you know regulated bodies or anything like that or insurance plans as of yet um however we have had people who um are are going through ICBC and they have been to get their floats covered um when they've gone through the proper channels there and um quite often it's when they have an occupational therapist or a doctor and there they're saying hey I'm floating and this is helping me this is helping my my issue and then they're able to go and and get that therapist or that doctor to to submit it to be claimed and that has worked so I've had that comeback that it has worked with ICBC um and and you know different types of flex pack packages if for different companies if they have insurance programs could work as well but I think asking the doctor asking the therapist uh whatever type of program you're going through if um if you're finding that this helps could it be covered is uh definitely worth asking because we've had the odd anecdotal experience say that they were able to get it covered which is great that's a good star it's a good sign that they're open to it so um and and if it is really helping somebody and the more of that coming through than I believe it will start to change the tide and we can get kind of lumped into things like Chiropractic physio theapy acupuncture um I I believe flotation therapy is heading in that direction based off of the research body that's behind it and then obviously just the results that people are getting so um you know but it's it's early goings and that's that's just kind of where the industry is at right now and that's uh what we're working with yeah definitely and I mean I I you know I recall something like acupuncture you know just you know that took a long time for people to for that to show up on a you know benefits package so it's definitely as you say kind of a process but um it's great to know that it is available uh so you know just as we sort of start to um wrap up what do you want people to know who are listening who have chronic pain what do you want what do you wish they knew about this you know what's what's the sort of top level thing that you think they need to know about flotation therapy I I just think overall that it it exists I mean I think people's awareness of it is just not there you know so this education process is huge um knowing that it's not contraindicating that it can be used in conjunction with any other pain management technique or or treatment program that you're going through um it's completely evidence-based so there is a lot of research and the body of research is growing as well um and it's you know it is it is natural so there's no Contra indications it's not going to affect you I any it's not going to make things worse um and it only has the potential to make things better to support and I'm not saying it you know it might not be for everybody like you might go in there even give it three four five shots and it's just not helping you then that's that's okay but at least now you know and um but for the for every person like that I'm willing that most will actually find some sort of relief um I myself I don't I don't I don't suffer from chronic pain uh too too much really like I have little back things from time from my surgery but overall I still float regularly to um to promote just overall well-being to to calm my central nervous system to suppress that stress response uh which we kind of are chronically in in this day and age in culture and Society we're kind of always in this fight or flight response I mean we're a coffee we're a coffee addicted society which is literally a stimulant so um um I think it's you know people will get better sleeps people will be able to recover and heal faster uh by suppressing that stress response and floating is a very uh fast reliable Natural Way um even though you know a session is 60 to 90 minutes um it that is people look like oh that's that's a signif amount of time and and that is true however it is a very potent form to suppress the stress response uh very very quickly and very dramatically so I actually see it as an investment of time to be more uh just fruitful and and and and uh thriving outside of it actually so that little bit commitment of time towards that makes the quality of time outside of it um dramatically enhanced personally so yeah yeah and so you run float house but is it I mean you mentioned like when you started looking into it there weren't that really that many of these kind of spaces available and it seemed like it's kind of more of an in home thing has it has it spread out has it become more popular like is it more abely yeah North America's exploded the last three years especially and every year it's exponentially growing so when we first opened the five tank Center here in Vancouver uh float house which was in Gastown we did five tanks uh which was the first commercial one in Vancouver in over 20 years at that time in North America there's maybe maybe 10 centers now there's over 450 wow so it's exploding it's it's you know the US is is uh every major city probably has a float Center by now like a commercial Float Center um and you know more different regulations are being in place and guidelines I actually had to work with the Ministry of Health to create the guidelines initially for Vancouver um so it's it's great it's great to see that it's on this up and up and people are are uh are finding value in it and and um you know but I would like to see it uh yeah I'd like to see it being uh greater know and and awareness so I really appreciate having this opportunity to share it with h with you and the pay BC audience yeah absolutely it's fantastic I mean it's definitely challenging too to you know for people who are maybe not in a major Center to be able to access something like this so it's encouraging to really hear that it's spreading and you know hopefully as as we get more information out there and you know people get more knowledge about it and there's you know hopefully there's there'll be some space in MSP to you know nudge along some coverage for this uh that it's something that will really you know spread which is great um yeah yeah I I think so and I think you know I think we we we live in a very interesting time where we're we're kind of learning um more and more about how our our bodies and our minds and our lives all interreact and and how you know there there are a lot of ways to address different issues and so I encourage people to keep that open mind and going along that trend of a holistic program like we know how much our diet affects things we know how much our environment affects things and our relationships affects ourselves and our health that is not just things but all of our health and so um you know looking towards where perhaps we were very more uh prescription based and and um and drug- based before I think people are kind of opening up to those Alternatives and not that those you know the pain medications aren't good and have a have a you know a role to play but is there other things that we could be using in conjunction with or instead of some of the the pain um medications out there so that's the last thing I kind of want to tap into yeah yeah it's definitely looking at again like we were talking about earlier the the whole biosocial model you know you can't look at pain in in isolation so totally it's something that that encompasses all of that and it sounds too like it's a you know if someone for example is maybe just starting out looking into meditation as an option to help or you know they're trying to manage their anxiety and depression that goes along with it that it really sounds like flotation therapy something that can can really support a lot of those other self-management techniques as well 100% yeah floating is like flotation therapy is meditation for dummies it makes it really easy um and that's because it takes away all those distractions and all you have to do is lie down and breathe and and feel and be and it it's a tremendous support tool and very conducive for meditation so uh and obviously the benefits of meditation are being highly touted now being you know widely prescribed but meditation is challenging meditation is hard and it's hard to have that practice and so and and also do you even know where what it's supposed to to feel like how do you know if you're meditating um and so the cool thing about the float tank is that that environment gets you to a state of being that is very unique and you like oh I didn't and but you're conscious through the whole experience and you're like I didn't okay I didn't I've never felt this state of being before this is a new one so it kind of helps you get into these deeper states of meditation and they have done brainwave EEG measurements on people who are floating and they are entering into these brain wave states that are related to different levels of meditation so in terms of the health benefits of meditation the flo tank is an amazing tool to support and introduce beginners to what that is all about it's it's a tremendous device for that in my opinion fantastic well Mike thank you so much I think you've given our listeners a lot of information a lot of great pointers and you you know hopefully maybe something that they've never heard of before or they have you know had an in the back of their minds this will hopefully you know give them that that extra information to really start investigating and you know hopefully find a a float Center close to them as well so thank you so much for being with us today really appreciated uh hearing all of this from you oh thank you Geraldine I really appreciate this opportunity and for pay BC to be open to uh hearing about this flotation therapy and again whether it's with float house or like look up wherever any commercial Float Center could be in your area and uh see what's around see what's available to you I'm not just representing my business I want to represent what this therapy is that's why I got into it originally it's because I believe in what it is and so whether you're footing with us or anywhere else uh wherever you may be listening to this uh seek it out if there's one available to you I strongly encourage you to give it a shot thank you so much Mike thank you to learn more about PBC you can go to pbc.com spreer on iTunes or wherever else you get your podcast
#Benefits #Flotation #TherapyREST #Chronic #Pain #Mike #Zaremba
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