Showering for Pain Relief; What’s the “Skinny”

Sometimes medical treatment just blows in to your mind. When you have fibromyalgia as I do, I do everything on my schedule considering pain relief. That includes your medication, exercise, what you eat and even bathing. The “treatment” I am about to share with you occurred quite at random the other morning as I was showering.

With my aching muscles and nerves the hotter the water or the colder the ice treatment the better I feel. However, there is only so much heat my skin can tolerate even though it feels good underneath. The other morning I began to shower and turned the shower spray over a particular sore area which is my shoulders and neck. I like to let the hot water beat on it as I stand under it. As I said I am only able to tolerate so much heat. I got to thinking and I know that water cools from the time it leaves the shower spray until it hits the tub so I wondered if perhaps there would be some intermediate heat level I could get if I allowed water to cool from the shower spray to the shoulders. I sat in the tub facing the front and put the shower flow on a fairly warm level but not too hot. Little by little I increased the heat and found I could tolerate a much hotter level than if I was standing. To get the affect I simply lowered my head and let it hit my neck and shoulders. I wondered why it was so effective and called my doctor, find more info.

I should have understood why it worked so well. When water hits you right up close in addition to the innate heat of the water, the speed at which the water is pounding on your body increases the heat level.

If you are sitting in the tub and you have that longer distance the force with which the water drops hit your body is a little less. And, the water can be taken up to a much hotter level than when you are showering standing because it is not hitting you with the same force; you can tolerate more heat and frankly it feels better. Further while the water isn’t hitting you with the same force as when you are standing there is a nice force from the distance that give you a massaging effect.

This is something I discovered for myself and I hope you will use it to prove it to yourself that it works especially if you have fibromyalgia or chronically sore muscles. Oh, I did find an online comment about sitting and using it as a “sauna” just so you know I’m not entirely crazy.

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Personal Experience and Knowledge