Are There Health Benefits of Using a Heated Mattress Pad?
A heated mattress pad can offer more than just snuggly comfort on a cold day. According to the Electric Blanket Institute, approximately 25 percent of people who have bought an electric blanket or heated mattress pad have done so for health reasons. Research has shown that using a heated mattress pad provides health benefits for some specific conditions, such as arthritis, fibromyalgia or muscle stiffness and soreness.
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Considerations
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Determining whether a heated mattress pad will help a patient involves researching what role the long-term application of heat plays in combating a particular condition. Health information web sites such as revolutionhealth.com or webmd.com can be useful. Asking a doctor, nurse or physical therapist also can help avoid any confusion.
Helping arthritis sufferers
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Heated mattress pads can reduce the pain, stiffness and soreness that results from arthritis. The Arthritis Foundation's Pain Center recommends using heated pads to fight pain. Patients with arthritis have reported that using a heated mattress pad first thing in the morning significantly reduces stiffness and increases flexibility.
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Additional conditions
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Researchers have also found that heating pads, such as heated mattress pads, can help treat the pain of fibromyalgia as well help patients with sore or stiff muscles. Although doctors are not sure how the heated pad helps fibromyalgia sufferers, evidence shows that it works. For patients with stiffness, the heat helps relax tense muscles.
Long-term vs. short-term heat
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Although one of the many approaches to low back pain suggests that alternating heat and cold can help reduce pain, researchers at the National Institutes of Health advise against the use of a heated mattress pad for low back pain because it provides long-term exposure to heat. The NIH instead recommends short-term hot compresses alternated with cold ones for low back pain, suggesting that not all conditions that are treatable with heat are treatable with a heated mattress pad.
Warnings
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Heated mattress pads offer patients with specific problems some comfort, but patients should use them with caution, especially when setting the temperature. Exposing the skin to very high levels of heat for long periods of time could cause inflammation or burning.
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