I've recently been experimenting with 'floating' at Beyond Rest in Perth. I'll share my personal experiences with it as well as some of the therapeutic uses I potentially see from a 'chiropractic standpoint'.

FLOAT TANK - WHAT TO EXPECT

The moment you walk in the building you are greeted by the very friendly and relaxed crew. You then are escorted to your own private float tank room, where you shower, put your ear plugs in then hop into the floating vessel that sort of resembles something that you would see out of a scifi movie! The lid is closed, lights go out and the hour of complete sensory deprivation (zero gravity, no noise, and complete darkness) begins. For me the hour felt like 20 mins and the calming music started to signify the hour was up and time to get out.It provides the ultimate environment for deep rest, contemplation, re-setting and meditation. Gravity is taken out of the equation so your muscles/tendon/ligament/fascia etc are all de-loaded and allowed to freely float and relax. Can you ever recall the last time you had gravity, noise and light taken away from you? Much like fasting gives ones digestive system a rest, floating gives ones nervous system a rest from processing all the complex information that it is constantly bombarded with in the form of the senses (whether it be visual through the optic nerve, sound through the intricate auditory apparatus or gravity and pressure through the proprioceptive system)

CHIROPRACTIC & MEDICAL PERSPECTIVE

As a chiropractor let me share some of my thoughts. I see a potential therapeutic use for the Float Tank in people with chronic intervertebral disc pathology. In a very simple sense the discs work as the as shock absorbers and are situated between all the vertebrae (except between the first two vertebrae). They have a soft inner part and a more firm outer structure. The outer structure resembles that of an onion in that is has circumferential rings. When this outer layer is compromised it can allow the soft inner part to herniate through and compromise delicate pain sensitive neural structures, via direct compression or inflammatory chemical irritation. A large problem with this type of injury is that it is cartilage based and naturally the intervertebral discs are poorly vascularised and thus receive the bulk of their nutrition through the pumping imbibition effect. So by floating it allows a gentle traction on the discs and hence potentially providing a more optimal environment for healing.The other element to healing and relaxation to consider is the high magnesium concentration in the solution which can be absorbed through the skin. There have been quite a number of studies (which can be found at the Beyond Rest website), some of which are small sample size and in the hierarchy of level of evidence are not at the top nevertheless do show some positive benefits. One study in particular I noticed was Float Tanks used for treating chronic whiplash associated disorders, again a small sample size but did show some positive results.

VERDICT...

This is something I plan to implement in my own personal routine as part of stress management and relaxing the muscles, tendon, ligaments and fascia. I also recommend it for these purposes for anyone else.
I would love to see the impact this has on some of the chronic disc patients I see in clinical practice.
Whether it’s scientifically validated or not I'm sure we can all benefit from taking an hour out of our day every so often to relax, unwind, defragment and just give our nervous system a rest.

You can learn more about Beyond Rest at http://beyondrest.com.au