When it comes to improving your general well-being, it’s crucial to maintain or enhance comfort and free yourself from frequent stress. However, it is inevitable to experience stress in life – a hectic day in school, work, or at home. Too much pressure or burnout can lead to different physical or mental health issues. So, to combat your stress, it’s imperative to take a break and do self-care.
Along with your self-care, you may find it ideal to use a heating pad. In this article, you’ll learn how a heating pad can improve your well-being.
- Relieves Body Pain
A heating pad, like the cherry pit heating pad, is generally used to help ease muscle, joint, and soft tissue pains. It’s commonly used as thermotherapy or heat therapy. The warmth of a heating pad increases blood flow in the affected area, this relaxes the muscles and reduces joint stiffness.
Here are the steps in using a heating pad to relieve body pain:
- Set It First To The Lowest Setting: Set your heating pad on the lowest setting, just enough to relieve muscle stiffness and minor aches and pain. You can increase the heat intensity as needed. This way, you set it to a temperature you are most comfortable with. Whether you plan to use the low or high setting, make sure to remove it after 15 to 30 minutes as you can get burned.
- Take Safety Precautions: Don’t place the heating pad directly on your skin. Wrap the heating pad in a towel before applying it to the skin to avoid burns. If you have damaged skin, don’t apply a heating pad. Also, avoid using the heating pad when you’re sleepy because you might forget it and burn your skin. Never use a heating pad with cracks or damaged electrical cord.
- Promotes Better Sleep
Everyone aims to have a good night’s sleep. But there are many things that could disrupt sleep, such as noise, stress, and even body pains. Studies show that sleep disturbance is correlated with the pain intensity you’re feeling. Applying a heating pad can help promote a good night’s rest since it can reduce pain levels to a more tolerable level.
As mentioned before, don’t use a heating pad while sleeping because it might burn your skin when you neglect to remove it after 15 to 30 minutes. It’s best to have someone, like a professional caregiver to accompany and check you regularly when you need assistance. You may also use a timer, so you can remove it on time.
- Promotes Proper Mobility
Heat therapy can help promote proper body movements. Heating pads are effective in improving blood circulation, allowing oxygen and nutrients to travel to muscles and joints. Proper blood circulation helps in repairing damaged muscles, relieving inflammation, and reducing back stiffness.
While any type of heat can help relieve pain, heating pads are highly recommended because they’re portable, convenient, and electric. Hence, you can use them anywhere at home, like when sitting on the sofa or lying in the bed.
If you don’t have an electric heating pad at home, you can make one by using an old cotton sock and regular rice. You also need a needle, thread, and a sewing machine. Fill the sock with rice and leave enough space at the top to sew the hole. After which, place the sock in the microwave oven for 3 to 5 minutes and there you have it, a DIY heating pad.
- Peace Of Mind
People tend to lose focus when they’re in pain. A heating pad can be a lifesaver for many people, especially those who have back pain and arthritis. Since this tool is used to reduce pain, it can help you focus better on your daily tasks. Unlike pain medications with side effects, a heating pad doesn’t have negative side effects. Just follow the safety precautions above to avoid getting skin burn due to prolonged application.
You can create a happy place at home, such as a meditation or yoga area, and add a heating pad to your relaxation kit. In this way, you can have a heating pad ready to use for your relaxation purposes.
- Reduces Stress
Every day, people face different types of stressors, may it be from their work or school. Added with body pain, stress can be overwhelming. Dealing with stress can affect work productivity, resulting in poorer task outcomes.
So, how can a heating pad help relieve everyday stress? A heating pad helps reduce aches and pains, thus, it can also help relieve stress. You can watch this video to learn more about heating pads and how to maximize their use to help reduce stress.
Conclusion
There are many ways a heating pad can help you feel more comfortable, relaxed, and pain-free. It can help improve your well-being by reducing aches and body pains associated with muscle tension, infection, and trauma. Users can use this handy equipment for better sleep, pain relief, and relaxation.
