This article is a transcribed edited summary of a video Bob and Brad recorded in November of 2020. For the original video go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEKWamu_WZ0&t=517s
Bob: Today we are going to talk about cold weather muscle and joint pain stiffness. We’re going to show you how to get relief from a far infrared heating therapy at home. This is timely,
Brad. Unfortunately, the cold weather, she is a coming.
Brad: Right, we just had an unusually warm week, but it is coming. And, as therapists, we hear the complaints of joint and muscle pain and stiffness associated with this cold weather and damp weather.
Bob: So, we’re going to show you a way to get out of it.
Brad: Right, we’re going to talk about some science here to know that you’re going to go about it the best manner possible. So, if you have this joint pain and you know that you feel better, particularly if you take a shower or a bath. And you’ve heard about far infrared hot packs, but you realize they cost a little bit more. Is it worth the money? We’re going to tell you what the difference is, what the facts are. And we’re going to go on with a little bit more information after that.
Bob: You actually wrote up a chart.
Brad: I did my homework and I thought this will be the easiest way, and the fastest way, because people talk about sometimes we carry on because we babble. So, here we’ve got a simple chart that highlights it. We’ve got far infrared and then standard. These are referring to hot packs. First of all, what’s the difference? What is the scientific difference? Far infrared is radiant heat. Now radiant heat is like from the sun. It radiates right through the atmosphere. Standard hot packs, the electric ones, are conduction heat. So, what that means with the hot pack, you have to have it contacting your skin. Then you get the transfer of heat from the pad to your skin. Now, with the far infrared you do not have to have it, contacting your skin. The radiant heat goes through the air and that’s a big bonus. Plus, the radiant heat, will not only go to the surface of the skin, it will penetrate deeper through the skin, into the muscle, into the joints.
Bob: That’s the second point Brad is making here. That’s the biggest advantage by far.
Brad: By far. They’ve done studies on this, deep heat with the infrared 2.36 inches. We can show you. We’ve got this fancy scientific yardstick of course. But, anyways here’s 2.36 inches, which is about 2 3/8.
Far Infrared heat Standard Electric heat
Bob: And here is the regular conduction heat, which is just the surface.
Brad: Basically, it’s superficial. It goes skin deep. It feels good, but it’s not going to penetrate.
Bob: It’s not going to get into the joints.
Brad: Exactly. So, again that’s the biggest difference. That’s why someone may pay more for it. We’ll talk more about that in just a minute. There is something called EMF, electric magnetic field. And it’s true that the EMF is higher on a standard hot pack versus infrared. But either way, it’s not going to be a problem. It’s not a health concern, but in the marketing literature you’ll see that, and they’ll say it is higher for standard electric heat. It’s true but it’s not a big deal. And I do want to inform you of that too, because I’ve read literature saying the EMF is higher in standard.
Bob: People panic. It’s not high enough to cause any problems. The wattage is so low.
Brad: The cost operation now that is a factor. It’s about one third of the cost to operate an infrared hot pack versus a standard one.
Bob: Basically they were telling us, you could run the infrared for pennies a day, if you ran it all day long.
Brad: I used to work in the electrical field and I thought, I want to find out. So I did the calculations and I went and looked, it’s true. It’s a lot cheaper, say about a third cheaper. But it depends on the standard hot packs, there’s usually three different levels of heat. On the infrared, it’s only one, and you only need one. You’re going to get a much deeper heat. So, it’s superior in that manner as well. As far as cost. Now, the big drawback is far infrared costs more initially. Here, let’s talk about the medical influence.
Bob: We are going to say something about that cost later too. We are going to bring it down for you.
Brad: Exactly. So there’s three big benefits, medically speaking, that we are concerned with. First circulation, it increases anytime you heat up tissue.
Bob: It increases circulation to the area which often increases number two, better healing.
Brad: Better healing, right. You always want to have good circulation. And, along with making tissues heal faster, there is typically less pain when you have better circulation. So, increased circulation, better healing, better pain, that’s all good.
Bob: The third one was a surprise to me Brad.
Brad: Yes, the relief of the pain lasts longer, with the far infrared. Four of six hours of pain relief, after you take the hot pack off versus the conventional conduction heat after you take it off.
Bob: It doesn’t last forever.
Brad: Right. The conventional or standard last maybe 15- 20 minutes. So, that’s a big deal as well.
Bob: I remember that actually, the Thermotex company talked about this early on. That’s why they were recommending like twice a day use to get that relief.
Brad: When we got these and Thermotex talked to us about using these I said, they cost too much. We’re not going to promote something that costs our viewers a lot of money. But then we used them. We looked and saw how they’re constructed and built. They are going to last a long time. They work better. It’s not like it’s going to wear out in a year. And, we’ve used ours for, we talked about 3 to 4 years.
Bob: Yeah, three to four years in our individual chairs. I have mine just set up there. It’s actually strapped around a pillow. I put the pillow behind me and I use it every night. It’s just kind of my treat, especially when it gets cold. I am wearing one on my back now. It comes with straps. If you order it from the link below, and these straps are nice. I used to get a lot of knot pain between my shoulder blades, from working at the computer. Once that pain would show up, nothing would take it away, except the Therotex. I wanted to keep working, so we strap it on and you can actually work. It comes with a six-foot cord. Then when I would walk around you can just unplug it and then come back and plug it back in again.
Brad: Just in case you wanted a beer or something?
Bob: LOL. Yeah right.
Brad: Just kidding, just kidding.
Bob: But, it really was the one thing that would take my pain away.
Brad: The straps offer a reminder to get your posture back as well. Because, chances are even though, Bob you’re the expert, and me too, we do lose our posture.
Bob: We’re all struggling with it.
Brad: Now outside of that, this is the platinum model. This is the one we recommend because it’s so versatile. It works for the back. I like it for my hands, you can wrap it around your hands and create a kind of muff. It just warms up through both hands.
Bob: The point I want to make here is because it goes 2.36 inches, it actually doubles that because it’s coming from both sides. So it will go all the way through the hand.
Brad: Right, through both hands. So you’re warming up all the joints, all that tissue. Also, it works if you want to put it on your hip. I really like this, particularly if you want to use it on your thigh.
Bob: Use it on your hamstrings.
Brad: Hamstrings, quadriceps, calf, you can get it around your ankle. And Thermotex does make individual heating pads for specific areas.
Bob: They make one you can use on your wrist. They have one for your feet. The big shoe.
Brad: But if you buy just that, then that’s pretty much all it’s good for. The platinum works for pretty much all parts of the body.
Bob: So it is pricey, and so we talked to Thermotex and you can use discount code FAMOUSPTX for a nice discount. If you are interested in the product mentioned above: 1.Thermotex Infrared Heating Pad Purchase link: www.thermotex.com/bobandbrad
Discount code: FAMOUSPTX
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