Home and Garden Chatter

Can a hot water bottle really be therapeutic?

Hot water bottles can have a real effect on stomach aches. This is the view reported by several national newspapers. The information that was obtained by the newspapers came in reports based upon laboratory research. This research had been presented at a meeting of the Physiological Society, and as yet, has not been officially published.

Whether you take this information with a pinch of salt is entirely up to the individual, but the evidence is worth investigation. It was reported by four newspapers that hot water bottles had a genuine effect on pain. They all claimed that the effect of the heat was comparable to painkillers on the body’s pain receptors. Most claimed that when the temperatures were above 40c, the pain relief would be likely to last for up to an hour.

There has to be an element of truth behind this, as I am sure that most people have applied something hot to an injury and felt relief at some point in their lives. I know through my own personal experience, I have used both hot and cold treatment on sports injuries and bad backs and noticed significant pain relief.

A few years ago I had what seemed like a regular seat in the local osteopath’s waiting room. My problem was chronic lower back pain, which would be so severe at times, that it became difficult for me to sit at a desk and work. Some of this pain was due to the rigours of playing squash and tennis, which I believed a reasonably fit man in his thirties was able to cope with. The point that I am trying to make is this, despite years of knowledge and experience my specialist could only advise me to use a hot water bottle on my back between my visits. This would also have to be alternated with extreme cold, which improved the blood circulation and boosted the revival of damaged tissue.

Some of the newspapers also suggested that a hot water bottle could be specifically useful for certain types of stomach pain. These included period pain, cystitis and irritable bowel syndrome. Some of the newspapers made a point of mentioning that future research would be focusing on developing drugs for the same painkilling objectives.

So is a hot water bottle still a handy object to have around, or an anachronism best confined to a box somewhere in the loft? I personally think they are a useful object, and nowadays look so much better. I had one bought for me as a present, oddly enough it wasn’t on my list, but it was gratefully received nonetheless. Apparently you don’t have to be restricted to buying them from Boots anymore, there are choices galore online. My sister bought the present from a company called Paprikashop which has an amazing array of designs and shapes that I never knew existed.

When you visit the site, you get the impression that you are entering into an unusual bazaar, with lots of gifts and presents, like Buddhas of all shapes and sizes. I noticed that they had some retro telephones, which I found quite interesting. A few months earlier I had been trying to find one of these for a photo-shoot, and had spent a bit of time trawling around second-hand shops and car boots. If only I had known!