Pain is one of the most common medical ailments with 1 in 5 North Americans suffering chronically. Despite its widespread occurrence, many individuals still suffer with unrelieved or under-treated pain. It’s negative impact has been found to span every age and every type and source of pain in which it has been studied. “A lot of people think that chronic pain is something only older people get, but in fact one in five children suffer from recurrent or chronic pains,” explains Jennifer Stinson, a nurse clinician scientist in the Research Institute at SickKids hospital in Toronto.
The majority of people dealing with pain have a significantly decreased quality of life. More than half suffer from severe levels of depression. The Warm Buddy Company is committed to helping improve the quality of life of pain sufferers with our line up of natural heat therapy products.
Warm Buddy heat wraps provide pain relief in a number of ways. Deep penetrating heat increases blood flow to the painful area, bringing more nutrients while flushing out the injured debris. It also promotes speedier healing by stimulating natural metabolic rate. Most importantly, applying heat will activate heat receptors at the site of injury. The receptors then block the effect of chemical messengers that cause pain to be detected by the body. Dr Brian King, leader of the team that carried out the research on the subject at the University College London, Department of Physiology, describes it this way: “The heat doesn’t just provide comfort and have a placebo effect – it actually deactivates the pain at a molecular level in much the same way as pharmaceutical painkillers work.”
Additionally, sports medicine researchers at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey have concluded that heat wrap therapy is more effective for relieving lower back pain than drugs such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen. Dr. Nadler states that heat wrap therapy is effective and important to patients because it gives them a treatment option that does not have the potential risk to the liver, kidneys, and gastrointestinal tract than can accompany inappropriate analgesic (oral pain medication) usage. The heat wrap treatments for low back pain also proved to be “better than oral analgesics because it goes beyond pain relief to provide muscle relaxation and increased flexibility.”
Another important use for Warm Buddy hot/cold therapy wraps in pain relief is their application in cold therapy treatment. When used cold, swelling and inflammation are decreased. Cold dulls nerve activity in the area to reduce the sensation of pain as well as provides vasoconstriction of blood vessels which stops fluid from traveling to the injury where swelling occurs thereby reducing the amount of swelling and permits fluid drainage. Cold also reduces muscle spasms and tightens muscles, limiting stretching and extending which allows them to heal.
