Hi grandnexus,
I’m glad you visited a store and were able to find a few products that “fit” you. Your opinion is the one that matters most, and the guidance of a knowledgeable consultant can be very assistive. As you know Soaring Heart is a member of this site and I think highly of them and the quality of their products and their knowledge and transparency.
I think what you meant is that you found a Dunlop mattress that uses no chemicals to meet the federal flammability guidelines? It is true that by using a natural fiber like wool that a mattress manufacturer can pass the flammability regulations without the use of any additional chemicals. The two certifications you mentioned, GOTS and GOLS, refer to standards that the covering and the foam has been certified to meet. Here is a page on the Soaring Heart site that talks about their particular certifications.
There is more information about the three different levels of organic certifications in post #2 here and some of the benefits of an organic certification in post #3 here and there is more about the different types of organic and safety certifications such as Oeko-tex, Eco-Institut, Greenguard Gold, C2C, and CertiPUR-US in post #2 here and more about some of the differences between organic and safety certifications in post #2 here and there are also some comments in post #42 here that can help you decide whether an organic certification is important to you for environmental, social, or personal reasons or whether a “safety” certification is enough. As you weren’t sure what GOTS and GOLS meant, I would tell you to read through this section.
It is true that latex tends to be one of the more expensive foams to produce. It’s also true that it is more expensive to maintain and meet certain certifications.
Latex is certainly a durable product and with good care it would very reasonable to expect at least a ten-year comfort life. There are numerous stories of people keeping their latex mattresses for over two decades, but I personally consider anything over a decade to be "bonus time for a good mattress.
As far as “protecting you,” I’m not quite sure what you mean by that statement. There certainly is no one material or mattress guaranteed to treat or fix a pre-existing condition, especially one as serious as yours. The best thing that you can do to protect yourself is to follow the guidelines that I mentioned in my earlier reply and make sure that you are selecting something using quality materials (you certainly are considering good materials so far), then make sure that it fits within your own PPP. And a good retailer certainly can use their experience to recommend products that tend to work well for people with your condition.
Again, this would be part of your PPP and what you are comfortable paying for a product. A good mattress is the most used piece of furniture in your home and has a direct impact upon your restoration. Everyone has their own budget range and ideas as to the value they place upon certain products, so that is certainly something you’ll need to take into consideration as you go out and shop for your new mattress. There is no one standardized scale of what you should “get” for a certain dollar amount. In the end you need to be “comfortable” with the product and the price you’re paying. I really don’t think you’re “missing anything.” It really comes down to you going through your own personal value equation.
Phoenix