Heat Therapy ... Benefits & Application

While the overall qualities of warmth and heat have long been associated with comfort and relaxation, Nature Creation heat therapy goes a step further and can provide both pain relief and healing benefits for many types of lower back pain.

In addition, heat therapy for lower back pain - in the form of heating pads, heat wraps, hot baths, warm gel packs, etc. - is both inexpensive and easy to do.

This article provides an examination of how heat therapy interacts with the body to alleviate pain as well as options on how to apply heat therapy to help alleviate many types of lower back pain.

How is the heat pack works?

Many episodes of lower back pain result from strains and over-exertions, creating tension in the muscles and soft tissues around the lower spine. As a result, this restricts proper circulation and sends pain signals to the brain.

Muscle spasm in the lower back can create sensations that may range from mild discomfort to excruciating lower back pain. Heat therapy can help relieve pain from the muscle spasm and related tightness in the lower back.

Heat therapy application can help provide lower back pain relief through several mechanisms:

Heat therapy dilates the blood vessels of the muscles surrounding the lumbar spine. This process increases the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the muscles, helping to heal the damaged tissue.

Heat stimulates the sensory receptors in the skin, which means that applying heat to the lower back will decrease transmissions of pain signals to the brain and partially relieve the discomfort.

Heat application facilitates stretching the soft tissues around the spine, including muscles, connective tissue, and adhesion. Consequently, with heat therapy, there will be a decrease in stiffness as well as injury, with an increase in flexibility and overall feeling of comfort. Flexibility is very important for a healthy back.

There are several other significant benefits of heat therapy that make it so appealing. Compared to most therapies, heat therapy is quite inexpensive (and in many circumstances it’s free - such as taking a hot bath). Heat therapy is also easy to do - it can be done at home while relaxing, and portable heat wraps also make it an option while at work or in the car.

For many people, heat therapy works best when combined with other treatment modalities, such as physical therapy and exercise. Relative to most medical treatments available, heat therapy is appealing to many people because it is a non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical form of lower back pain relief.

How to Apply the Heat Pack

The most effective heat therapy products are the ones that can maintain their heat at the proper temperature. “Warm” is the proper temperature. Patients should not have their heat source be hot to the point of burning the skin. The desired effect is for the heat to penetrate down into the muscles. Simply increasing the temperature of the skin will do little to decrease discomfort.

In many instances, the longer the heat is applied, the better. The duration that one needs to apply the heat, though, is based on the type of and/or magnitude of the injury. For very minor back tension, short amounts of heat therapy may be sufficient (such as 15 to 20 minutes). For more intense injuries, longer sessions of heat may be more beneficial (such as 30 minutes to 2 hours, or more).

Nature Creation products offers two options of heat therapy include moist heat and dry heat.

• Dry heat, such as electric heating pads and saunas, draw out moisture from the body and may leave the skin dehydrated. However, some people feel that dry heat is the easiest to apply and feels the best.

• Moist heat, such as hot baths, steamed towels or moist heating packs can aid in the heat’s penetration into the muscles, and some people feel that moist heat provides better pain relief.

A specific type of heat therapy may feel better for one person than for another, and it may require some experimentation to figure out which one works best. There are many different manners for heat to be applied to the lower back.

Finally, it is important to use enough insulation between the heat source and the skin to avoid overheating or burning the skin.

Please note that heat should not be used in certain circumstances. For example, if the lower back is swollen or bruised, heat should not be used. Patients should consult doctors if they have heart disease or hypertension. Heat application is also not suitable in the following cases:

• Dermatitis

• Deep vein thrombosis

• Diabetes

• Peripheral vascular disease

• Open wound

• Severe cognitive impairment

In general, if the injured area is swollen or bruised it is better to apply ice or a cold pack to reduce the inflammation or swelling.

In summary, Nature Creation heat therapy is an easy and inexpensive option to provide relief from many forms of lower back pain. It may be used alone or in conjunction with other therapies. Because it is so simple, it is often overlooked and physicians may forget to mention it, but heat therapy used in the right way can be a valuable part of many lower back pain treatment programs.

Acupuncture... is it really work?

Acupuncture involves inserting hair-thin needles into your skin to relieve pain. Find out how acupuncture works and what conditions it can treat.

Acupuncture involves the insertion of extremely thin needles through your skin, to various depths at strategic points on your body. Acupuncture originated in China thousands of years ago, but over the past two decades its popularity has grown significantly within the United States. Although scientists don't fully understand how or why acupuncture works, some studies indicate that it may provide a number of medical benefits — from reducing pain to helping with chemotherapy-induced nausea.

What happens during an acupuncture session?

Acupuncture therapy usually involves a series of weekly or biweekly treatments in an outpatient setting. It's common to have up to 12 treatments in total. Although each acupuncture practitioner has his or her own unique style, each visit typically includes an exam and an assessment of your current condition, the insertion of needles, and a discussion about self-care tips. An acupuncture visit generally lasts about 30 minutes.

Before the needles are placed, you'll lie down on a comfortable surface. Depending on where the needles are to go, you will lie facedown, faceup or on your side. Make sure that your acupuncturist uses single-use sterile packaged needles. You may feel a brief, sharp sensation when the needle is inserted, but generally the procedure isn't painful.

It's common, however, to feel a deep aching sensation when the needle reaches the correct depth. After placement, the needles are sometimes moved gently or stimulated with electricity or heat. As many as a dozen needles may need to be placed for each treatment. Once the needles are inserted, they're usually left in place for five to 20 minutes.

How does acupuncture work?

The traditional Chinese theory behind acupuncture as medical treatment is very different from that of Western medicine. In traditional Chinese medicine, health results form a harmonious balance between the complementary extremes (yin and yang) of the life force known as qi or chi.

Qi is believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. These meridians and the energy flow are accessible through more than 350 acupuncture points. Illness results from an imbalance of the forces. By inserting needles into these points in various combinations, acupuncture practitioners believe that your energy flow will rebalance.

In contrast, the Western explanation of acupuncture incorporates modern concepts of neuroscience. Many practitioners view the acupuncture points as places to stimulate nerves, muscles and connective tissue. This stimulation appears to boost the activity of your body's natural painkillers and increase blood flow.

Who is acupuncture for?

Acupuncture seems to be useful as a stand-alone treatment for some conditions, but it's also increasingly being used in conjunction with more conventional Western medical treatments. For example, doctors may combine acupuncture and drugs to control pain and nausea after surgery.

Scientific studies generally test treatments against placebos, such as sugar pills. It's difficult to conduct valid scientific studies of acupuncture, because it's difficult to devise sham versions of acupuncture. In fact, several studies have indicated that sham acupuncture works as well or almost as well as real acupuncture.

This makes it hard to create a definitive list of the conditions for which acupuncture might be helpful. However, preliminary studies indicate that acupuncture may offer symptomatic relief for a variety of diseases and conditions, including low back pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, migraines and osteoarthritis.

In addition, research shows acupuncture can help manage postoperative dental pain and alleviate chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting. It also appears to offer relief for chronic menstrual cramps and tennis elbow.

Pros and cons

As with most medical therapies, acupuncture has both benefits and risks. Consider the benefits:

• Acupuncture is safe when performed properly.
• It has few side effects.
• It can be useful as a complement to other treatment methods.
• It's becoming more available in conventional medical settings.
• It helps control certain types of pain.
• It may be an alternative if you don't respond to or don't want to take pain medications.

Acupuncture may not be safe if you have a bleeding disorder or if you're taking blood thinners. The most common side effects of acupuncture are soreness, bleeding or bruising at the needle sites. Rarely, a needle may break or an internal organ might be injured. If needles are reused, infectious diseases may be accidentally transmitted. However, these risks are low in the hands of a competent, certified acupuncture practitioner.

Pros & Cons of Non Surgical Back Pain Treatments

Nonsurgical, noninvasive approaches are likely to be what you'll begin with. Low back pain often improves on its own over time or with the help of conservative approaches. People with acute low back pain generally experience substantial improvement in the first month after initially seeing their doctor. When it's time to decide on nonsurgical, conservative approaches, consider these points:

Pros	Cons
Conservative approaches are less invasive than surgery and don't require the recovery time that surgery does.	You may have to be patient. It may take a while for you to return to your desired level of activity at work and at leisure.
Conservative approaches allow your body's own natural healing process to work, which is what happens most of the time with back pain.	If you take pain medications, they may cause side effects.
You can try conservative approaches and always opt for a more-aggressive approach later.	Conservative approaches may require a change in habits, such as regular exercise to strengthen your back.
Other than your pain, your doctor may not have any physical findings on which to recommend surgery.	If your pain is severe, persistent and disabling, you may struggle with feelings to move to a more-aggressive approach.
Conservative approaches cost less than surgery.
You avoid the risks of surgery.

Back Pain Guidelines

Your sore back is a nuisance, or worse. It may prevent you from doing what you need to do — for example, work — or what you want to do, such as enjoyable pastimes. You may have reached the point of wondering: "Will I be able to keep my mind off the nagging pain today? Will my back pain ever go away? When can I get better and become more active again?" If you're like millions of other people who deal with chronic nonspecific back pain, you're more than familiar with these questions.

Chronic nonspecific back pain is different from the occasional sore back you might have for a day or two after too much gardening or painting the ceiling. Unlike instances of acute back pain, chronic nonspecific back pain is:

• Long lasting. To be termed chronic, back pain usually has been present for three months at a time.
• Recurring. Even after resolution of one long episode of back pain, pain tends to return. However, the recurrence is highly variable among people and unpredictable.

Chronic nonspecific back pain is the kind of back pain that, by definition, is "nonspecific." In other words, in most cases the cause is unknown or difficult to pin down. If this kind of back pain describes your pain, then this decision guide is for you. If you need information about back pain that's associated with a herniated disk, especially back pain that involves radiating leg pain or leg muscle weakness, see this guide's "Related links" section for a link to another guide dedicated to that topic.

Think of you and your doctor as partners in managing and treating your chronic back pain. You'll want to carefully consider all your options and the risks and benefits of each in relation to your lifestyle and what's important to you. The information in this decision guide is intended to help you understand the various treatment options, from more-conservative to more-invasive techniques, and help you decide which treatment — or combination of treatments — is best for you.

Take about an hour to go through this information in sequence by following the links at the right or at the bottom of each page. This provides proper context and helps you understand more about chronic back pain, your treatment options, and the pros and cons to consider in making your decision.

Treatment Approach:

Because chronic nonspecific back pain may result from several factors — physical, psychological and social — treatment often involves a multifaceted approach or an approach using multiple interventions.

Emphasis on improving function
The most important aspect of chronic nonspecific back pain is how it impacts your ability to function in your daily life. So, although it's important to reduce pain, the emphasis of the treatment isn't only on eliminating the pain, but on improving your ability to function as much as possible in your usual activities. As well as reducing pain and improving function, goals of treatment include giving you skills to self-manage your pain and avoiding adverse side effects of treatment.

Starting with a conservative approach
Treatment options include a variety of conservative approaches such as medications, exercise and physical therapy, and counseling, or they include more-aggressive approaches such as surgery. However, because nonspecific back pain often improves on its own or with conservative approaches, that's where you and your doctor will likely first focus your efforts. You'll likely reserve discussion of surgery or other more-invasive procedures for later consideration.

Treatment Suggestion:

Cold or heat therapy. Using Nature Creation cold and heat therapy may relieve pain and muscle tension in the initial days after back pain begins. Some studies show that heat is an effective approach for acute nonspecific back pain. As for chronic back pain, cold and heat likely won't cause harm and may be helpful, but there isn't scientific evidence at this time to prove that cold and heat are effective treatments for chronic low back pain. Cold applied to your back can reduce inflammation and swelling by constricting blood vessels. The cold also acts to slow nerve impulses and make it less likely that your muscles will contract, in this way reducing pain.

March 2009 Nature Creation Retail Promotion

New & Improved Nature Creation Warm-Up Slippers

New Product

Nature Creation Thermo Warm-Up Slippers

The ideal design of Nature Creation Thermo Slippers is to provide natural soothing therapy in the comfort of your daily life. Through out the years, we had many compliments and suggestions on what to expect and how to improve the designs and the execution of this product. We did all the researches and experiments, which finally came out in details as followed:

• New & Improved Sewing Methods
  
  
  
  • Durability and comfort are two main reasons of this improvement. We experimented extensively with various durable, but soft materials for the inner sole, padding, and outer fabrics. Yet, we always put the priority of comfort to the users. As the final designs revealed, we discovered new blend of sewing patterns to strengthen the joints and combined to better fabrics, which eventually improved the users' experiences of excellent heating & cooling effects. This new multi layers Zig-Zag sewing patterns and new fabrics will guarantee to improve the durability of Thermo Slippers.
  
  
  
  


• New Blended Formula of 9 Essential Natural Herbs
  
  
  
  • Unlike the previous blend, the new system of the sole padding contains smaller particles of natural herbs. They will not harsh or absurd the bottom foot, which allow the users to walk comfortably, while maintain the heat and cold effect on the product. The hand-selected herbs include Chamomile, Cinnamon, Lemon grass, Peppermint, Rosemary, Spearmint, White Willow, Yarrow, Yellow-Dock Root. In addition, we add Flax Seed and Wheat as the heating and cooling elements to the blends.
  
  
  
  


• Easy Opening and Sealed Pocket
  
  
  
  • It is now easier to remove or replace the sole pads on the Thermo Slippers. The improved design of the sole pads extend the flexibility, while the new sewing systems allow the Thermo Slippers to open wider to take-in & out of the padding.
  
  
  
  


• Mini Rubber Dot Bottom Sole
  
  
  
  • In order to prevent injuries due to slippery bottom surface, we add mini molecule rubber dots on this new design. This special tacky rubber will hold your feet steadily on hard and soft surfaces.
  
  
  
  


• Colors of Synergy
  
  
  
  • The thicker, but soft outer fabrics will enhance the durability & comfort, yet they match the marble colors of other Nature Creation products. Now, you can use the complete sets of Nature Creation collections and be in harmony of perfect synergy with your favorite colors. The available colors of Nature Creation Thermo Shoes are Black, Blue, Purple & Red.
  
  
  
  


• 1-Year Craftsmanship Warranty
  
  
  
  • We are confident to the quality, comfort and soothing therapy of this new & improved Thermo Slippers, which we back it up with 1-year craftsmanship warranty. If you find any workmanship defects or issues within the first year of purchase, we will replace your Thermo Slippers and extend the warranty on the replacement for an additional 1-year.
  
  
  
  

There is no doubt that you are purchasing products from a company with excellent customer services and quality in mind. We understand your high expectations and always work hard to pursuit of perfection to satisfy your needs. We are not only looking for one transaction to fulfill our commitment to excellence.  Yet, we are always looking absolute satisfaction of your clients and our business relation in the future.

If you need further assistance or like to discuss in person, please send us an email at info@naturecreation.com or call at 1-888-250-2010.