Sunday, April 27, 2014

14 Gadgets to Relieve Fibromyalgia Pain

3. Moist heating pad
What it is: A pad that relaxes your muscle aches with soothing heat.

Moist heating pads come in a variety of shapes and sizes, including rectangular ones for your back or oblong wraps for neck and shoulders.

You can also get moist wraps for knees, ankles and elbows, and moist booties and mittens for aching feet and hands.

Electric versions heat automatically; non-electric pads have sponge liners that you wet and then heat in a microwave.

Why it helps: "Heat relaxes muscles, and moisture reduces the skin's natural resistance to [absorbing] heat," says Scott Glaser, M.D., an interventional pain physician in Chicago.

But be careful.

"If you overuse heat, you can have permanent discoloration from increased blood flow to the skin," Dr. Glaser says. Apply the pad to a painful spot on low heat for no more than 20 minutes at a time.

Using these pads can be helpful before stretching painful muscles, observes Shannon Rock, an occupational therapist at Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore.

"Moist heat increases blood flow to the area, which helps prepare the tissue for stretching," she says.

Try it: Medibeads Neck Wrap, http://ift.tt/1mMlwmy ^[1]