Back pain is quite common; it is difficult to find a person who does not face this problem.
Characteristic is also the eternal problem of "lack of time" to go to the doctor, according to which most people prefer self-medication, for which they use actively advertised gels and ointments that remove back pain.
With these funds, patches are actively advertised. This back remedy has been known for a long time, but it did not enjoy much popularity in recent years until it was taken over by major manufacturers.
To understand whether such patches are really effective, one needs to understand the possible causes of back pain.
Why does my back hurt?
Back pain can have several causes. The most harmless of them are minor injuries and sprains that a person can get during sports and during physical work.
Although, in the absence of proper attention to such minor injuries, they can have very unpleasant "delayed" consequences, affecting the condition of the muscular corset of the back and the musculoskeletal system itself.
But in the general case, such minor injuries resemble themselves with pain for a few days, after which they gradually disappear.
But the most common cause of severe back pain is osteochondrosis and its consequences.
This disease is dangerous because it develops gradually and in the early stages, when it can still be successfully resolved, it does not manifest itself with any practical symptoms.
In the future, this disease will become the cause of the development of various pain syndromes, the formation of intervertebral hernias, etc.
If microtraumas of the back can still be ignored while waiting for the moment when they stop causing pain, then it will not work with osteochondrosis - when its consequences are manifested, it is not possible to endure severe pain for a long time and you still need to see a doctor.
In addition, if minor injuries are successfully removed by improvised means, serious back diseases must be treated for years.
The main cause of pain in this disease is damage to the nerve roots of the spinal cord. Such compression can occur for various reasons, but it is this compression that causes almost all pain syndromes.
The warming effect in the treatment of back pain
When treating back injuries or diseases, doctors almost always recommend "dry heat" along with the necessary medications.
This usually means wrapping the affected part of the body with a warm fluffy scarf - so that the back in the affected area "warms up" well.
This "dry heat" improves blood circulation, due to which the inflammation and edema are somewhat reduced, which leads to a decrease in the pressure on the compressed nerve root.
Accordingly, the pain syndrome decreases. Of course, this method alone will not deal with severe pain, but it is quite suitable as a kind of aid.
Moreover, it can be noticed that the vast majority of folk recipes for back pain are based on this effect of warming the affected area of the back. And with non-intense pain, such methods are successfully coped, although they do not allow you to get rid of the cause of their occurrence.
Warming as an alternative to tablets
When back pain occurs, doctors usually give preference to medications. And such methods in most cases include the use of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, which quickly relieve inflammation and reduce pain.
Therefore, NSAIDs generally strive for one goal - to reduce pain, which in most cases they successfully deal with.
But such drugs have a serious drawback - the treatment of back disease involves their long-term use, in which side effects begin to appear.
The most common of these effects is a disorder of the gastrointestinal tract. Thus, for example, treatment of a herniated disc can take up to a year, and taking NSAIDs without significant effects on a patient’s body can rarely take longer than a month.
This leads to the fact that doctors are forced to prescribe such drugs in the minimum effective doses and look for alternative methods of treatment.
First of all, they pay attention to the gels and ointments that are available in large quantities in pharmacies.
But half of them are not suitable in this case, because their overall effect is based on the action of all the same NSAIDs. Fats of a "warming" nature are much more expensive and rarer.
Another popular alternative now is plaster, which is invisible, securely attached to the back and quite effectively relieves back pain.
Types of patches on the back
Pepper plaster
The oldest and "deserved" is the banal pepper plaster, which has been known for a very long time. The principle of action is simple and clear - a special composition of pepper is applied to the sticky surface, which has an irritating and warming effect when it touches the skin.
Perhaps the only disadvantage of such a patch is the excessive aggressiveness of the pepper, which at the slightest violation of the rules for the use of the patch can lead to serious skin irritation.
And this will seriously limit the possibilities of treatment - the inflamed area cannot be massaged, it is no longer possible to stick another patch or apply a heating gel or ointment.
These shortcomings have become the reason for the search for alternative heating compositions that will be applied to the patch with no less efficiency.
Anesthetize without heating - NSAID patch
Several manufacturers have decided without further ado to avoid the problem of skin irritation simply and gracefully - the same non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are simply applied to a patch that is gradually absorbed into the skin and has its own therapeutic effect.
Thanks to this patch, back pain is removed quickly enough, the risk of irritation is minimal, and the issue of overheating is also not worth it. But this patch also has drawbacks.
For example, they are definitely not suitable for those who prefer more without "chemistry" if possible, because the main active ingredient is the same as in tablets, only it enters the body through the skin, having the same unpleasant side effects.
Reflected heat
Another option are patches that contain one or the other "reflective" coating. It is not so important as the manufacturer specifically called it, the essence is the same - the heat released by the human body is reflected and accumulated, which is why the warming effect occurs.
Naturally, such patches have virtually no contraindications (since there is no active substance), but it is better to stick them not on the skin, but on the canvas.
"Wonderful patches" from China
There are a number of types of patches that have been developed in China based on local traditional medicine. The composition of such a patch contains a lot of herbal components, each of which (in theory) should have a certain therapeutic effect.
Such a patch is a very good choice for fans of "natural" treatment, the only drawback is its unconfirmed effectiveness.