Showing posts with label At Home Medical Treatments. Show all posts
Showing posts with label At Home Medical Treatments. Show all posts

Friday, July 17, 2015

Feet That Don't Hurt With Natra Cure Therapy Socks



First of all, this is a clever product I wish I’d had four years ago. My Plantar Faciitis is healed now, but when it was bad, I would have loved to have this!

 

Natra Cure Cold Therapy Socks are a nifty pair of socks with pockets that allow you to hold a hot/cold pack across the sole of your foot (full length) and a half size hot/cold pack across your heel (back) or toes (top). The socks are soft (the fuzzy part against your skin) and actually sort of cute. The packs are sturdy. (My alternative was wearing a pair of socks and rolling a frozen water bottle underneath my feet when my Plantar Faciitis was really bad, which can be a bit messy!)

Please note: Do not walk in these socks because of the hot/cold packs containing Polygel, a special gel that retains heat and cold longer than other gels. Also, the packs need to come to room temperature before changing from hot to cold or from cold to hot.



My thoughts: Excellent! I found these cooling, but not too cold (sometimes the water bottles were too cold). I usually used the socks sitting, with my feet up, but if it was not cold enough, I just put my feet down to press down on the cold pack to give myself a bit more cooling.
 This is an absolutely fantastic product for tired feet. Last Saturday I put in a 14+ hour day on my feet (Scout Fundraiser) and when I was finally done, my feet were tired & aching, and these were perfect. I’m just keeping the cold packs in my freezer all the time, right now (maybe in the winter that will change).
On the down side, you can’t take the packs from the freezer (in case you change your mind) and straightaway put them into the microwave to heat them up. The directions say they need to be at room temperature, first. Also,make sure to put them into the socks before heating them in the microwave. Heating them is very easy.

The packs give about 20 minutes of real cooling or heating, which makes sense because that is only how long you are supposed to use them. One time I took them out of the freezer to use, got sidetracked for about fifteen minutes and then used them. They were cool & helpful, but not as much as they had been when I had been able to use them immediately.

The website does not yet offer replacement packs, but will soon! I think it might be nice to have two sets of packs in case I suddenly decide I need to heat them up, and they are already in the freezer, or there is some sort of emergency and I have to take off running, without time to remove the socks (don’t laugh—this sort of thing is not out of the question when there are children involved) and rupture the packs.

The description that comes with the socks was helpful. I might never have found the ‘heel’ pocket in the sock without the picture & description, otherwise. There are care instructions & heating/cooling instructions. They are easy to read and not too verbose.

As I have used them for cooling my tired feet, I honestly wondered what the top pocket in the sock was good for—I could not imagine using it at all, until I tried heating the packs up. (Make sure you follow the directions!) I put the one across the bottom and the half-size one over my toes. I am going to love these in the winter! Sometimes my feet get so cold that I have put a hot pad under them and another one on top—it solves the problem, but is not as easy as these socks.

The directions say not to wash the socks, only to wipe them down (really?!) So, just to push the envelope, I washed them by hand anyway, with shampoo (I figured that was pretty gentle, right?) They don’t appear to have shrunken or spontaneously evaporated. However, I’m sure it’s important to let them dry completely before using them.

Since you are not supposed to walk in them, I guess they are unlikely to get dirty, especially if I wash my feet before using them!





This post was written by Valerie Rees Maker. She has a husband, four children and a cat, and lives in Orem, UT although originally from Concord, CA. She is involved in the  Boy Scouts, teaches & performs MiddleEastern dance, repairs books, and writes in her spare time.

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Injury And Pain Recovery Wth NatraCure Featuring PolyGel



We have a lot of pain going on at our house! Just for starters, my husband has an old back injury and he gets back flare-ups regularly. I have been dealing with shoulder pain from an injury that won't seem to heal properly, and my son has knee problems, stemming from his high school football position on the defensive line.

With the prohibitive cost and low availability of good medical insurance and the difficulty of  getting a doctor that one feels good about, more and more people are turning to at-home medical treatment wherever possible. Our family is certainly in that category. If we can take care of something at home vs. going to the doctor, we're going to do it.

Most injuries require lots of  diligent care, as well as time and patience for them to heal. For instance, any kind of inflammation is going to require alternate regimens of heat and cold, the most widely recommended treatment. Coupled with that, compression is a real benefit because it delivers the heat or cold deep into the tissues for better pain relief. With all of the injuries in my family, inflammation is the main problem. Hot and cold treatment is what is needed on a regular basis. There really isn't much else to do, other than get medicated for pain, (which has its own risks) and get physical therapy (which can be costly and time-consuming).

I was thrilled to find out about a company called NatraCure, a company that has created a line of ThermoActive Cold/Hot Compression Aids. It utilizes a special gel called PolyGel with revolutionary properties. What that means is that now advanced injury treatment, once virtually impossible to get outside of a hospital/ER or doctor's office is easily obtainable for in-home use! Until recently, PolyGel had primarily served the medical industry, where their products were prescribed by thousands of orthopedists and podiatrists across the U.S. But with NatraCure, the same technologies offered to doctors have been adapted for consumer use. So no prescription is required!





For instance, we were able to order and use the NatraCure Hot/Cold & Compression Knee Support for my son, who has knee pain associated with a football injury. Aside from physical therapy, there really isn't much he can do other than to manage the pain. The Hot/Cold & Compression Knee Support is excellent because since he is in the later stages of injury, he needs heat that is uniform and adds constant pressure. It really works well and we are thrilled to have such a great aid in pain management, ultimately healing him of knee pain.  This would also be great for chronic conditions such as patella tendonitis, chondromalacia, and bursitis, alternate therapy where heat and cold are needed in repeated intervals, after physical therapy, household accidents, or pre and post sports activity.
 The PolyGel is unique because it can be both heated and cooled. It retains the temperature for longer periods of time and doesn't require as much gel, so it can conform to the point of injury better.
  

This system was about $100 and will literally save us hundreds of dollars in pain management, physical therapy and medical costs on just the one injury. Of course, as other knee injuries inevitably come up, we can use it on those as well! The Hot/Cold & Compression Knee Support's built-in compression system and included PolyGel pack provide targeted hot or cold treatment with quick, easy operation, ideal for treating the pain and swelling associated with arthritis, household accidents, sports injuries, or chronic pain conditions.

NatraCure has other innovative options as well, based on individual parts of the body, from head to toe. There are many heat and cold therapy aids available on the market. But this system is way ahead of the game because of the PolyGel and the accompanying compression technology. I figure why settle for partial treatment, when you can have what a doctor would provide? It's the difference between being cured and putting a temporary band-aid on something.

I recommend NatraCure Hot/Cold & Compression Products for every household. There is nothing like it!
Some products are available on Amazon!