Miracle Of Medicine
Inclined Therapy in the Sunday Independent


DELIGHTED
John Cann is standing on his own two feet again after eight years of paralysis in his legs - and he is convinced it's
all down to a simple bed treatment.
John had no feeling in his legs for eight years after an operation went wrong, but following two years of treatment using a raised bed method pioneered in the West Country, he has got the feelings back in his legs -and now is determined to walk.
The 69-year-old is amazed at the effect the simple treatment has had over the past two years and has urged other people to try it for themselves.
'I raised the bed and that night I had no pain at all,' he said. 'I had been going until about three in the morning and then had to have an injection to get back to sleep.
'Now I make a point of standing up with my standing frame every day while I watch the news in the evenings to build up my strength.
'I never give up and now I have set myself the next aim to go for. I am going to walk unaided. I may need crutches and then sticks, but I am going to walk again.'
Former engineer Andrew Fletcher, who invented the Naturesway Sleep System six years ago, said that he was astonished when he visited John at his home in Gunnislake to see him standing.
He says that many people have benefitted from the simple treatment of raising the head of their beds a few inches, but in the case of John it had been very dramatic.
'It was just incredible,' said Andrew. 'I was nearly in tears. Here was a man who was told there was nothing that could be done for him; had felt nothing for eight years and then in the last two years has got feeling back in his legs.'
John, a former commercial diver who served in the Army, was keen on rugby and canoeing until the operation left him paralysed.
He was told that however much movement he had after two years, there would be no further improvement -that was until he tried the bed-raising technique.
But as the months went on, he noticed pains travelling through his legs and realised that it was the nerves regen-
erating.
'After all this pain, I noticed I was getting more and more feeling back and found I could flex muscles I had not been able to flex before,' said John.
'The only things that do not hurt are my ankles, and my right knee is not very strong. I can stand, but only using my standing frame at the moment.'
Andrew has now arranged for John to use a parachute harness that will fully support his legs, and a rail is being fitted to a wall at his home so that he can move around on his feet more often. Andrew said that many people were sceptical about the effects of the raised bed method and it had not worked for everyone.
But he added: 'If it can do that for John, what can't it do for the rest of us? I say go out in the garden, grab a couple of house bricks and give it a go.'


Just by raising their beds with a few blocks of wood, or some house bricks, scores of spinal injury sufferers say that they have noticed a dramatic improvement in their conditions. But how can such a simple method seem to succeed where conventional medicine has failed? Chief reporter ANTHONY ABBOTT looks at the apparent phenomenon of the Nataresway Sleep System


ON THE MEND: John Cann is standing again Pictures: sieve Porter

Fighting to be taken seriously

Sunday Independent April 9,2000

PASSIONATE:
ANDREW Fletcher is a passionate believer in the benefits of his simple bed treatment -but he says that he has struggled to make the medical world take serious notice.
Since he first carried out experiments back in 1994, it has been an-uphill battle to be taken seriously despite his website carrying scores of testimonies from sufferers who say that it has given them a new lease of life. He has
manufactured a purpose-built bed, yet he has been unable to market it properly because both the Department of Trade and Industry and his bank have refused to give him financial backing.
Now he hopes to set up a controlled study of ten MS sufferers at Bristol Royal Infirmary in a bid to give doctors more concrete proof of the apparent success of his bed treatment.
He said: 'This is such a simple ,it is just amazing it hasn't been discovered before and it it makes you wonder how much longer the medical world can ignore it.'

Andrew said he was aware some neuro-sur-geons were recommending the raised sleeping methods for MS sufferers, but he is also certain that it can bring benefits to people who are perfectly fit.
But Dr Rosie Jones of the MS Research Unit at Bristol General Hospital, who has promised to look into Andrew's theories, sounded a note of caution. She said: 'We are not dismissing Andrew's thesis out of hand.
'If there is genuine change, and a genuine improvement we will say so.
'We would not want people to miss out on something that may help them, but we must see that
genuine change and we must see it in the right context.'