When you use an electric heating pad, it’s usually to warm a part of your body to help manage pain. When you apply heat to a localized part of the body, the blood vessels will dilate, which means that they will get bigger.
This can help with bringing relief to the problem area, which can help manage ongoing chronic pain conditions, including muscle tension and back pain. When you’re in pain, tension is built up in the soft muscle tissue. This tension can constrict your circulation, which tells our brains that we’re in pain. Opening up these blood vessels again through heat pads can reduce the pain. Let’s take a look at some of the top reasons to use electric heating pads.
Sore Muscles
If you’ve just completed a hard workout, then your muscles are at risk of building up too much lactic acid. If you haven’t properly warmed your body up before and after, the build-up of lactic acid can cause painful, stiff muscles. When you use electric heating pads on sore muscles, an increase of oxygen and blood flows to the localized muscle, which can help accelerate the healing process and reduce pain in the area.
Cramping
You can experience muscle cramps for a variety of different reasons. From working out to not having enough potassium, there are many different reasons why your muscles may cramp up. When you apply an electric heating pad to the cramped muscle, it can help relieve the tension. If the part of the body where the cramp is covers a large area, you may want to consider using a large heating pad, which can bring relief faster.
Back Pain
There are many different reasons why you may be experiencing back pain. However, if your back pain has been caused by sore or injured muscles, then using an electric heating pad to apply heat can help bring relief from the pain, and heal the soft tissue. In your back, you have many different muscle groups that cross over one another. They all work together to provide flexibility and movement. If you are exercising too much, it’s easy to strain any one of these muscle groups. Again, if a large part of your back is being affected by pain or discomfort, then applying a large heating pad can be beneficial.
Knee and Hip Pain
If you suffer from chronic or acute hip or knee pain, then you will know first hand how debilitating it can be. Hip and knee pain is usually caused by a problem with your joints, and if the pain is coming from damaged soft tissue or muscle, you might want to consider applying an electric heating pad. This can help increase the flexibility of the muscle, and decrease any stiffness that you’re experiencing around the joint area. When your blood is able to circulate better around the body, damaged muscle tissue can heal faster. This is why electric heat therapy can be so effective for issues like back pain.
Conclusion
One of the best things about using an electric heating pad for pain is that you can control the temperature. Furthermore, once you’ve decided on the right temperature, you can leave it there, and it will stay at that temperature until you turn it off.
Most electric heating pads also come with a cover so that you can protect your skin from being exposed to direct heat. Some are battery operated, but most plug in to the wall socket.
If you exercise a lot and suffer from injured or strained muscles a lot of the time, heat therapy is a great alternative to pain medication. If you have back issues, it’s an excellent option to bring immediate relief.