A scientific study is to be released that provides the first concrete evidence that nail mats deliver proven health benefits.
Researchers at Sweden’s University of Karlstad said that the mats relieved the worst levels of pain in long-term sufferers of muscle pain, especially in the back.
“The result is impressive,” Anette Kjellgren, associate professor of psychology at the university, told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.
“Many of my patients have been using spike mats for years and have been saying that it makes them more calm and that they respond better to other treatments. We thought we should do a systematic study of this.”
Working with a leading pain doctor, Lena Werngren, she selected a group of 35 people, none of whom had used a nail mat before.
“The spike mats cut pain spikes. Our hypothesis is that the pain is reduced when you apply a competing stimulus to the area of pain. The additional pain (from the mat) filters out the competing pain,” Kjellgren told the newspaper.
A leading U.S. producer of the mats, Acushakti (www.acushakti.com), told Metro: “Acushakti is committed to honesty about its products: We know it works better for some people than others, but the results are impressive, and this research is a useful addition to the debate.”
