- Bob, you and I and many of our viewers
are probably suffering from joint pain
with this cold weather.
Might be from poor diet.
- That's right.
- It just might be arthritis just nagging in on 'em.
So we're gonna show you a couple options
that are gonna help reduce and stop that pain without meds.
That means no side effects.
Hold on and we're gonna get right to it.
Bob, any additions?
- It's snowing outside.
- Yeah. It's snowing outside today.
So it's all fitting together.
♪ Bob and Brad, the two most famous physical therapists ♪
♪ On the internet ♪
- All right, Bob,
did a little homework on this and I found out-
- Wow. Good for you.
- I found an article, recent,
January of 2022 written by Deborah,
I hope I get the name right, Fulham Bruce PhD.
This article is reviewed
by a medical doctor and this information's good.
Plus we got a full over 57 years of clinicals experience.
- Oh my god, we're old. - Yeah.
Hands on.
And we found this all consistent with-
- It's true. - Exactly right.
All right Bob, I think there's gonna be no surprise.
One of the things you can do
with that joint pain is use some heat on it.
- It feels good. - It feels good.
The other thing, the second option in this article
which not a real big surprise to us, is cold.
- Cold. - Yeah! Use cold packs.
- Whatever temperature is your trigger.
- I've gotta admit,
in my practice over the last 25 years
I can think of one person
with severe arthritis and she really like cold.
- It's very rare.
- Yeah. Most people like heat,
but there's always that option.
So we're gonna cover that as well.
Now with heat, one of the things that it does
is it helps dilate the vessels, increase circulation.
- More blood flow.
- More blood flow, and that helps.
It just feels good. - Right.
- We're gonna talk about differences
of what type of heat to use for options.
Cold on the other hand, restricts
and actually pushes some fluid out.
There's some numbing effect
from cold that can help reduce the pain.
Whatever. You can try each one.
- You use cold on your back, right?
- Oh yeah. I'm a cold person.
I don't know if there's arthritic problem,
I don't think it might be coming up though.
So we're gonna get first options of heat that you can use.
Number one, therapists I think we've always used
moist hot packs
and we have these hydroculators
that these hot packs are soaking in hot water
and you use 'em.
But people don't have those at home.
- Absolutely not. - To make it simple,
a few good options is simply a warm shower,
doing the dishes in warm water, get those hands warmed up.
A hot tub.
Some people you could use a hot or a sauna or a steam room.
However, if you do that,
you really gotta make sure the doctor okays it.
If you have a heart problem
you may not want to go into a hot tub, a steam room.
- Agreed.
- You can have problems with that.
Other options for at home is simply hot packs.
So if you happen to have
there are cold and hot packs that you can do both of those.
You can either put this in the freezer, comes out cold.
- Or the microwave.
- Or put it in the microwave
and there'll be instructions on it
how long to put it in there
and put that on your aching joints.
The other option is an electric hot pack.
Now there's standard hot packs that they come
and they usually have two or three temperatures.
Big caution with hot packs like that, they're conventional.
They don't go real deep.
They go about skin deep.
They feel good, but you have to be careful
if you put it on all the way high
and you like fall asleep with it.
Bob and I have both had patients-
- That got burned. - That burned theirselves
because they fell asleep with a hot pack on high
and it can be a problem. - Absolutely.
- Now the other type of hot pack, this costs more
but it is definitely more superior.
It's far, F A R, far infrared.
It's a special type of hot pack far infrared rays
will heat up deep into your tissues.
- 2.36 inches. - Right, over two inches
and you can leave 'em on much longer.
This particular one here, we like Thermotex.
It only goes, I believe 107 degrees is what it heats up to.
There's only one setting. - But it goes deep.
- And it goes deep.
And you can leave that on up to 45 minutes without concern.
- Right.
- So that's another excellent option.
All right, if you have not tried cold on those sore joints,
you can try, an easy way to do it without spending any money
is go to your freezer and you know,
maybe you're going to have a package of mixed vegetables,
corn, peas, whatever it may be.
They work well. They're cold.
If you got a knee joint pain,
you simply put it right over your knee.
Do not put cold directly on your skin.
There's a potential to get frost bitten.
- And you eat peas? - Well you can.
You can thaw 'em on your knee
and then put 'em in and boil 'em.
- Sure. It's really good.
- Typically patients I've had
they designate one bag of frozen peas
for their cold pack so that's an option.
If this works well you can actually make a cold pack
that works very well.
I've used one.
- Very popular.
- Simply go to the store and get some rubbing alcohol.
It does make a difference on the percent alcohol.
This is 91%.
I think you can get it-
- The more the better?
- Not necessarily, just changes the ratio.
So here's an example I made this last night.
I took two freezer bags
and you can see it says cold back on there
so no one uses this for anything else.
And I put one of these in and then two waters, right?
So the ratio is two waters to one rubbing alcohol.
This is 91%, which I haven't used before.
I've always used a lesser and this will not freeze.
It's just cold water now, which is nice
'cause it's darn cold and it actually goes over the top.
Now what I would do
with this is I would dump some of it out and add more water.
- Sure.
- 'Cause I like it so it turns slushy.
- Right.
- If I use the alcohol with, I think it's 70 some percent,
this would probably come out slushy.
And that's something you have to learn.
- Got it. - But these work well.
You get done with it, put it back in the freezer.
Wanna hold on to that baby?
- It's cold.
- You're darn right it's cold, Bob.
- My gosh.
- It's a cold pack. Hence the name.
- Yes. Or you can simply you,
if you have one of these nice cold packs,
make sure you get a good one.
- Right.
- Make sure, 'cause cheap ones,
you put it in the cold, in the freezer.
- It's a big brick.
- Yeah. And they come out and they're hard.
- Right.
- Those are the el cheapos.
They're not really worth buying.
You're better off making one.
Otherwise it should come out soft.
You can wrap it around the joint, your shoulder,
your hand, whatever it may be.
And the nicer ones like this one,
we like iReliev.
They make an excellent quality one.
You could use it for a hot pack as well.
- Both sides.
- Yep. Double...
- Whammy. - Double whammy.
Two for the price of one type of deal.
Also put some ice in. - Ice water.
- Yep. Ice water.
Ice, put some water in there.
It's pretty aggressive.
- Oh, very aggressive.
- Yeah, some people like it.
It's not gonna be for a lot of people.
- Right.
- So again, cold 10 to 20 minutes
not longer than 20 minutes is gonna be all you need.
Again, never on your direct skin.
And you know, I think these things can help.
No side effects.
- If I hold hands with my wife.
She's got cold hands.
- She got cold hands, warm heart.
- Right.
- You're a lucky man, Bob.
All right. Very good.
Enjoy the winter.
Keep those hands, feet and joints feeling good.
- You love winter, don't you, Brad?
- What? - Love winter?
- Oh, winter?
Yeah. My favorite is becoming more
and more my favorite season to go down south.
- All right. What a liar.
- Take care.
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