I am living with herniated disk.  I have a sealy plush mattress.
can anyone explain in layman's terms why spring coil mattresses are bad for people with low back pain?
thanks and god bless.

lowbacpain wrote:
I don't think that is true at all.

I think it depends on the springs and on the back and on the foam on top of the springs.

See my thread on Englander mattress surgery.
I have had a bad back, bad neck and shoulders for man years now - it just gets worse as time goes along and I have yet another car accident. (None of the 3 have been my own fault. I live in L.A.!)

My philosophy is to buy a mattress with the kind of springs you think will work for you (this may require nothing more than guess work on your part), open it up, take out the crappy PU foam, and add your own latex layer. Doing this solved my back problem (at least the sleeping part of it).
However, after some time the HR foam I had been using wore out and so I just bought latex to replace it. So far this seems to have been the answer. In any case I believe it can be the answer for many people who don't like "pure foam" beds and like or need the feel of springs under their body as they sleep.

I don't think they are.  My husband had one a long time ago that was great for my low back pain - I've never found better.  It was manufactured in the mid 80s and was stiff and flat with very little padding on top.  It didn't feel luxurious when you laid down but the springs were exactly right for my back.  But it was a double and we wanted a larger bed when we got married, so we "upgraded" to a "better" mattress.  And I haven't been able to find a mattress like this since.

I personally think plush mattresses are bad for people with low back pain.  At least they are for me.

lnkholder wrote:
I think you're absolutely right, inholder.
I bet your mattress that was good, was over 12 years old. I dont' know the exact year but it seems to me they quit making good ones around the year 1998 or a little earlier... I know for sure that any Big S mattresses after 2001 are mostly junk.
But it isn't the springs, it's the foam they put on top of the springs - cheap PU foam.