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By ANASTASIA TOUFEXIS

Quiz time. Besides Jane Fonda, what sex symbol of the '60s has become a health emblem of the '80s? Stumped? Try the waterbed. Yes, that infamous fixture of hippie pads has been transformed in just two decades into an increasingly popular middle-class therapeutic aid. Kathleen Hetland and her husband Darwin of Osakis, Minn., both 56 and arthritis sufferers, sleep blissfully on a waterbed mattress that their children sent them as a gift. Says she: "I absolutely love it, and I wouldn't know what to do without it."

Today the waterbed industry is not only a $2 billion business (compared with about $13 million in 1971), but it is also the fastest-growing segment of the bedding market, accounting for 21% of all mattress sales. Last year 4 million waterbeds were sold (price: $100 to $600), nearly three-quarters of them to buyers over age 30. About one-fourth of purchasers now cite health reasons for choosing a waterbed. The most common complaints are back pain, arthritis and insomnia.

The most popular waterbed is still the original water-filled vinyl bag set within a plastic or wooden frame. Fast gaining in appeal, however, is the soft-sided bed made of vinyl with foam baffles, cells or cylinders inside that reduce wave motion. Water temperature can be varied by a thermostat-controlled heater mat that plugs into a wall socket.

The liquid system provides more even support than conventional bedding, say enthusiasts, contouring to body shape and thus easing stress on the buttocks, shoulders, elbows, hips, calves and heels. "It's just more support in the right places without exerting pressure on the wrong places," explains Stacy James, head of advertising for Land and Sky, a Lincoln, Neb., water-bed manufacturer. Sloshy cushions, say advocates, keep the spine in proper alignment and, along with the heat, help blood circulation. Ads now tout waterbeds as good for the whole family, from children to the elderly.

As yet, though, scientific proof for such claims is scanty. waterbeds are helpful in the prevention of bedsores, a problem that afflicts up to 30% of patients in chronic-care facilities; some hospitals also endorse the use of flotation mattresses to help premature infants breathe more normally. Opinion is mixed, however, on whether waterbeds are good for back pain. Orthopedist Steven Garfin of the University of California at San Diego gives cautious approval. "Patients tend to do a little better in terms of range of motion and comfort on the wate bed than conventional bedding," he says. But Dr. Rene Caillet, a rehabilitation specialist at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center, is unconvinced. "If you lie on your stomach, the waterbed allows you to increase the sway or the sag of the back," he notes.

Nonetheless, satisfied users abound. Nancy Wallrich, 56, a homemaker in Santa Fe Springs, Calif., who has had rheumatoid arthritis for 30 years, says her waterbed has brought her uninterrupted sleep. It has also improved her sex life. "For me, many positions and movements had become difficult," she observes. "Now I am able to move around more." That sounds a lot like what waterbeds were famous for way back when.

With reporting by Beth Austin/Chicago and Bill Johnson/Los Angeles

Waterbed News of the Wierd

Waterbeds For Cows?

The DUAL CHAMBER COW WATERBEDS differ from all other man made stall bedding available for the following reasons:

Unlike solid rubber, canvas covered crushed rubber, or foam covered with canvas, all stationary surfaces, and the surface of the DUAL CHAMBER COW WATERBED is always flexible and moving with the cow’s skin.  The flexible surface moves with the cow’s pressure points preventing skin abrasions and hock swelling.  An analogy that is easily understood is this:  An individual enters a hospital for a long period of bed rest.  They are immediately put on a bed surface that moves with their skin. This prevents bed sores from forming.  The very same thing happens to a cow on a waterbed.  Her skin moves with the stall surface preventing abrasions, swelling and sores.

The Dual Chamber Waterbed from Advanced Comfort Technology, Inc. offers diary cows considerably more comfort than a standard cow mat or conventional cow bedding.  Dual Chamber Waterbeds are the only man-made bed surface that allows the cow’s skin to float on the stall surface.  This floating characteristic cushions the cow’s pressure points – the knees, hocks and the udder – and it helps prevent the development of lesions and sores more typically found with stationary, non-moving surfaces.  The Dual Chamber Waterbed therefore provides for a much more comfortable and a much healthier animal.

The Dual Chamber Waterbed also features design characteristics which help keep the cows’ stalls more sanitary and less labor intensive for the typical dairy operator.  Once filled, the Dual Chamber Waterbed takes on a convex shape which inherently forces milk, water and urine to flow off the sides of the bed.  Urine and leaking milk are not allowed to pool on the bed surface, thus keeping the bed dry and free from bacteria promoting moisture.  The dry bed surface keeps the cow’s udders dray and promotes further health benefits to the cow, such as reduced occurrences of mastitis and reduced somatic cell count.

Also, because the Dual Chamber Waterbed’s convex shape keeps the bed surface dry, the Waterbed requires little to no additional bedding to absorb moisture.  This result provides the dairy with not only a reduced cost in bedding that must be constantly changed, but it also saves the dairy in reduced labor costs to change the bedding.

The Dual Chamber Waterbed offers cows the most comfortable bedding option, while providing the maximum amount of benefits to both the cow and the dairy.

This is not your Dad's Waterbed!

When most people think of waterbeds, they picture a bed from the 70's or 80's that was like riding a wave at sea every time you got on the bed. As you laid down to go to sleep at night, you sank into a hole in the center because you could never fill up the single water compartment enough to give you any real support, and your body was just too heavy. The waterbeds tended to lose water, whether through evaporation or slow leak, very quickly, and you couldn't have sharp objects around the bed, with girls even having to be careful of long fingernails. All of this made waterbeds a fun and exciting fad that faded pretty quickly.

Today, you probably can't think of a single reason why you would want to have a waterbed. Nonetheless, they are still on the market and, with the new design of these beds, they've become quite popular again. The way they are structured, you'll never sink into the middle again, you'll have an incredibly difficult time trying to puncture the mattress, and you'll find a great level of support combined with custom contouring that makes waterbeds today more comfortable than many other types of beds. In fact, these modern beds are more comfortable than standard mattresses.

Here's a quick overview of how the waterbed has been modernized to make it more practical and a lot more comfortable. First of all, the water is no longer held in a single compartment. Instead, an inner chamber holds several tubes of water that can be removed one at a time and refilled should they become too empty, and, should the bed be too firm, you can simply remove a tube to create more fluid movement. Also, the water tubes are not directly accessible from the top of the mattress. Several layers go between you and the water tubes, making the waterbed virtually indestructible from your poking and prodding.

After pulling a protective plastic cover over the water tubes, there are usually two foam layers on top of the water tubes, the first thick and flat and the second with the egg carton shape for support and contouring. These offer enough protection themselves, but the packing doesn't end there. In order to assure that you won't sink into the mattress, you will zip the entire mattress closed, leaving it to appear like any other standard mattress, and the waterbed usually has a mattress topper enclosed for that added support.

With all the changes that have been made, the modern waterbed has become a standard in the home once again. These contemporary beds are almost impossible to puncture or destroy in any fashion. Waterbed mattresses can now be used with all sorts of high end bedroom furniture, including king size platform beds and wood and iron beds. Of course, to support the weight, you'll need a king size metal bed frame. All of the added padding gives you the support you need and the protection the waterbed needs while still offering that liquid motion and comfort. New waterbeds are amazing, and while they evolved from a lesser model of the past, they show few traces of the same weaknesses.

Waterbed Prank!