IF YOUR USING HEAT THERAPY – GO OLD SCHOOL!

Not all heat is therapeutic heat! Years ago you would have paid your hard earned cash for treatment and the therapist would give you some ‘heat therapy’ with their whiz-bang heat lamp. But has anyone noticed that therapists don’t use the good ol’ ray lamps much any more?

So which heat is good heat?

Below is a photo of a 1940s heat therapy lamp from an old hospital, rewired to use as a floor or reading lamp. And to be quite honest, a little bit of science later and we have figured out that ray lamps really are better for reading a good book on a winter’s night than actually providing therapy!

Why?

Well science figured out that heat from a ray lamp is not very therapeutic at all. The heat from such a lamp is known as radiant heat. Radiant heat hits the skin and reflects off. It does not go into the deeper layers of muscle where the therapy is really needed. Instead the superficial blood vessels warm and as they do, blood flow is increased superficially and the ‘warmth’ is whisked away. Great way to get a tan but not provide healing to tight or injured muscle . . . I love it – the wisdom of modern man.

So what provides therapeutic heat?

Put simply you get a therapeutic benefit from heat when you insulate it. In other words the ancient, proven and tried ‘hot tub’ is much more therapeutically effective. Warm water heats and insulates. When the heat is insulated it keeps working deeper and deeper into tissues rather than being simply reflected off the skin. A heat bag filled with wheat or lupen or similar is the next best thing. You will notice when your heat bag comes out of the microwave, it creates a ‘moist’ heat. Then when you leave it on the skin it insulates.

Simple and effective . . .

If you need a great heat bag then check out the products I would use and recommend to family, friends and clients.

If this article has been useful then punch your name and email into the side bar and have new articles sent to you as I write them.

– Tim