Pillo1 for chronic neck and back pain

At a time when Americans spend over $50 billion on ways to alleviate neck and back pain, Dr. Raymond Hall is theorizing a painful connection between conventional pillows and neck issues and created a revolutionary solution called Pillo1 (www.pillo1.com) to address the problem.

A study done in November, 2009 at St. John's Medical Plaza Sleep Disorders Center showed that Pillo1 re-educates the body to move into the optimal sleeping position and promotes increased time spent in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep by 21.3%, what researchers consider to be landslide improvements. A simple, but profound hypothesis, Dr. Hall purports that the sleep industry has it all wrong: a pillow must support the neck, and cradle the head. Dr. Hall feels that neck pain could be a result of the fact that conventional pillows do not support the neck in its natural curve, but keep it under stress during sleep.

"After 25 years as a chiropractor, I found a pattern from my patients who complained that neck pain 'suddenly appeared when (they) woke up one morning.' This common statement led me to believe there is a connection between neck pain and pillows."

Dr. Hall explains that conventional pillows push up the head and stress the neck. When the neck is supported underneath, blood flow, nerve connectivity and rejuvenation of the muscles and connective tissue can occur naturally during sleep. Dr. Hall engineered Pillo1 in six different pieces of deliciously soft soy foam and eco friendly Talalay latex which gently promotes the healthy, lordotic curve of the neck. As such, Pillo1 naturally encourages the body to sleep more on the back, but also on either side in neutral spinal alignment.

Dr. Daniel Norman and Dr. Paul Haberman, who ran the study in their sleep laboratory in Santa Monica, Calif., tested sleep patterns on subjects by providing them with conventional pillows and Pillo1. The results of the study showed that subjects entered into REM sleep 23.8 minutes (20%) faster (than if using a conventional pillow) and the time they spent in REM sleep was increased by 21% (16.5 minutes per night per eight hour period).

"The study results are significant to neck pain and over-all health," Dr. Hall further comments. "With ordinary pillows, people don't maximize REM sleep and with Pillo1 they do. Memory, cognitive function and not being in chronic pain are critical for living a 'normal' life."