I am always interested in trying out products that provide external treatment for pain. In this post I consider relief of pain using the Solanpas Pain Reliveing Patch. This are easy to apply and come in a variety of sizes. For me these are quiet useful for temporary treatment for pain and can provide relief of pain for up to 8 hours.
The picture below shows what a box of small 2×3 inch patches looks like:
The patches are thin, off white cloth stuck to a green plastic backing. You simply remove the patch from the green backing and apply the sticky side of the patch to the area of your back, leg, or arm that hurts. These primarily seem to work for mild muscle aches where there is soreness without serious muscle spasm. I personally use them on my back and neck. One of the biggest advantages of an external patch is that you are not putting something directly in your body. And you can take the patch off when you feel better or if it starts to irritate you.
I found the cooling sensation these patches create to be very soothing. The patches start to work in under 5 minutes, which is blissfully fast when you are hurting. I also liked that there was no messy, greasy cream to apply. These work great for me and I have been able to use them instead of taking larger doses of prescription medication.
These are available online and at most local drugstores A pack 20 of the small 3″x2″
The patches contain Camphor, Manthol and Methyl Salicylate. All are listed as topical analgesics. The Salicylate is essentially topical aspirin. Care should be used to follow the instructions on the package as over applying of these patches to your body can actually be fatal. But if you follow the directions you should be fine. Just don’t plaster dozens of these things all over your body and don’t ingest them. As with any medication OTC or otherwise, one should follow instructions and use common sense.
Treatment for pain can take many forms and if you can obtain relief of pain with an OTC product that in my book that is a win.
Michael,
Those aren’t bad, but a much better product is available at some traditional Chinese medicine stores. They come in a canary-yellow foil packet, about 4x as large as the SalonPas.
Thanks for the tip, Gina! I will investigate these this week. I think there is a TCM shop off Casto St. in Mountain View. I will try there this week. I’ll post my experience on this blog. MM