Warming away the Pain with Sunbeam® Heating Pads (sponsored)

I’m not a fan of cold packs. Let’s just get that out there. When I was in PT regularly it seemed like they always wanted to hook me up to a TENS machine then wrap me in cold packs. All I would do is cinch up, forcing my muscles to get even tighter than they already were, creating more pain.

I know you are supposed to use cold to reduce inflammation, and heat to loosen muscles. When you have both inflammation and tight muscles it can be hard to figure out whether to go for heat or ice. But, I’ll go with heat every time.

This post sponsored by Sunbeam® Products Inc. All opinions expressed here are my own.

Most of my pain is in my neck and shoulders. .. and lower back… and hips… and butt. Could I just be arms and legs and a head please? I think I’d probably not feel any pain then. The last few years, though, it’s primarily neck and shoulder (right shoulder to be specific). We can’t find the source, but I can tell you that ice always makes it worse.

On the other hand, heat helps. So, I keep a heating pad in the bed. I also have another one in the living room. They are there when I need them.

With most of my pain I can drop into a nice warm tub and relax the muscles, easing the pain. Unfortunately, my tub isn’t deep enough to get my shoulders entirely in the tub so the only way to really warm them up and give them that nice warm moist heat that helps is with a heating pad.

Years ago I found the most amazing heating pad from Sunbeam®. I picked it up at Walgreens, I think, but you can find it on their website. It’s soft. It bends and folds like a towel, and in fact the material is terrycloth. You can even wet the outer cloth material to create a moist heat (which is even better for that deep pain). You also can’t really feel the wires inside which is another plus, especially when living with Fibromyalgia. It’s amazing how with Fibro those little things affect you so much -a button, a wire can be the difference between comfort and excruciating pain. So, it’s awful when something like a heating pad that is supposed to make you feel better ends up making things worse.

Sometimes, I get so cold the only thing I can do to warm up is get in a hot tub, or wrap myself in heating pads. When I get really cold, my pain gets worse. So, there are a lot of times where I will grab my heating pad just to warm me up. Or, I’ll use it to warm up a good chunk of my side of the bed so that I don’t have to climb into a cold bed when I’m already cold. Thankfully, it also has a timer so it automatically shuts off after a couple of hours to help me avoid burning a whole in my neck.

As awesome as that heating pad is, just like other heating pads it doesn’t really cover the back of my neck and shoulders completely, so when Sunbeam® sent me the Sunbeam® Renue® Tension Relief Heat Wrap I got really excited. Just like my other Sunbeam® heating pad this one is made of soft, plush micro-fiber that can be used dry or moist and it’s even fully washable. Also, like other Sunbeam® heating pads it has a great digital controller, with four heat settings, and a 2 hour on/off, which is very important if you use it in bed like I do. Where this wrap gets bonus points is that it is made to fit around your shoulders and neck. It’s fitted for that very purpose and it even has a little magnet in the front to hold it in place. Perfect! It’s like Sunbeam® is making an effort to really step up their game. First they developed these super soft heating pads that fold and can be used anywhere without feeling like you are laying on plastic or wires, now this!

Another big plus that I noticed is that you can reverse this pad and use it so that the cord drops on either side making it even easier to plug it in. And, with the 9 foot cord it’s even easier. It also comes with a 5 year limited warranty, so no worries that it’s going to break on your anytime soon.

You know I’m a fan of natural pain relief whenever possible and heat is about as natural as it can get. When it comes to reducing tension and relaxing muscles heat works. I took a look through some of the other products on the Sunbeam® website and I was really surprised at the innovation they’ve got going on, like the full back, shoulders, neck heating pad. Natural, safe, effective, and now innovative. Now that covers some ground! Way to go Sunbeam®!

Check out the full line of Sunbeam heating pad products on Amazon.

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