Beat the Heat with an Ice Chill Cooling Vest

From May until September, temperatures in Phoenix, Arizona are constantly in the triple digits. For the first four summers since I moved to Phoenix, the heat constantly affected my MS. I found that during the high heat that I was more fatigued, more irritable and had less energy than I did during the cooler months. I also noticed that my cognitive abilities and vision were not as crisp when temps were in the hundreds. I often wondered if cooling products could actually improve my quality of life.

I recently had the opportunity to try out a cooling vest when I was sent an Ice Chill cooling vest by Plus Heat. I wanted to conduct some tests to see if cooling vests really made a difference. It was important to me that the vest was comfortable, easy to move in and didn’t obstruct my routine.

To review the Ice Chill, I tested it in tough desert conditions. Typically to avoid the sun, I do my outside chores in the early morning before the sun comes up. For this experiment, however, I cleaned the pool and picked up the backyard during the late afternoon hours. The temperature was 102 degrees and my chores took me an hour and half to complete. I also took my dog for a walk in the afternoon when it was 104 degrees, wearing business casual clothes.

Here are my results:

• The vest is lightweight and I had no problems moving around while wearing it.
• Despite the heat, the cooling cartridges stayed frozen the entire time.
• The compartments that hold the cooling cartridges kept my clothes dry, but I still got the cooling benefit.
• Because my core stayed cool, I had more energy to stay outside despite the triple digit temperature.
• If I could change one thing, I would have taken the cooling cartridges out of the plastic bag they came in and placed them in the freezer flat. Because I froze them balled up, they were harder to insert than if I would have put them flat in the freezer.

In conclusion, I found the Ice Chill cooling vest to be comfortable and lightweight, allowing me to conduct my daily routine without getting in the way. My core stayed cool, which seemed to give me more energy and allow me to be outside for a greater time than I would without a cooling solution. As a person living with a chronic illness, I would definitely recommend the Ice Chill cooling vest as a way to stay active in the heat while keeping your core temperature cool. I will be using mine all summer long!

Benefits of Massage

Now is the right time to quit thinking of back massage as a luxury, yet rather a proven instrument that can enhance your wellbeing.

"The idea that back rub is 'simply a liberality' is old-fashioned," says Brent A. Bauer, M.d., chief of the integral and integrative drug program at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. "There are in excess of 1,000 studies and distributed reports that offer investigative proof on the wellbeing impacts of back rub treatment. There are absolutely coordinate impacts like changes that happen at the muscle level and ache pathways and a lessening in anxiety hormones, for example, cortisol. At the same time there are likewise roundabout impacts like being in an open to setting and a humane human vicinity that can all lead to significant consequences for our anxiety levels and passionate state."

Don't simply take Dr. Bauer's word of honor for it. Here, examination uncovers five wellbeing profits to a decent rub down.

1. Back rub abatements anxiety, misery and uneasiness.

When you're restless and feeling the weight, your body pumps out the anxiety hormone cortisol. Shockingly, this simply makes you feel much more focused on and on edge. Here's the place a back rub can offer assistance. Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, contemplated patients who had experienced open-heart surgery. They looked at the regale of back rub and calm unwinding time and found that those in the back rub gathering were fundamentally less restless and strained. They additionally reported essentially less torment. Different studies affirm these results. "Comparative endeavors in thoracic, breast and colorectal surgery prompted boundless usage of back rub help in our doctor's facilities," clarifies study creator Bauer.

2. A rub down decreases lower back torment.

Gracious, your hurting back! In the event that lower back ache is making life, well, truly frightful, a little rub down may be simply what the specialist requested. Analysts at the University of Miami School of Medicine led a five-week ponder on individuals who had been experiencing lower back torment for no less than six months. They found that the individuals who got 30 minutes of back rub treatment twice a week had less agony and more versatility and scope of movement in their lower backs than the individuals who had unwinding help amid that time. Special reward? The back rub aggregate likewise felt less pushed!

3. You'll rest better.

A considerable lot of us experience difficulty nodding off around evening time and almost 10 percent of Americans experience the ill effects of interminable a sleeping disorder. In the same lower back agony study led at the University of Miami School of Medicine, study members in the back rub bunch additionally said they dozed better than those in the unwinding gathering. An alternate study in the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology contrasted the profits of back rub with those of unwinding help on individuals who have fibromyalgia. Following five weeks of twice- week after week 30-moment kneads, those in the back rub treatment bunch dozed longer and more soundly than the individuals who had unwinding help. Also, individuals in the rub-down gathering additionally discovered their agony level diminished and they had less weaknesses on their bodies.

4. Back rub may straightforwardness knee torment.

Osteoarthritis of the knee means there's been a breakdown of cartilage, ligaments, joint covering or underlying bone, which could be a true torment in the knees. Yet back rub may offer assistance. A study at both Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center in Connecticut and University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey found that week by week Swedish back rubs diminished knee torment in those anguish from osteoarthritis. In the eight-week mull over, a few members had 60-moment Swedish kneads here and there a week, while the others had shorter or less successive medications or no back rub whatsoever. Those in the 60-moment back rub gathering had less torment and more capacity in their knees.

5. The help eases carpal passage disorder.

With a greater amount of us logging longer hours before our machines, wrist torment is an issue numerous can identify with. In more genuine circumstances, you may have carpal shaft disorder, which is the point at which the average nerve that goes through the wrist gets to be trapped, bringing about agony and shivering. A delicate back rub may offer assistance. One study reported in Rheumatology International separated carpal shaft sufferers into two gatherings. One gathering got hand rubs notwithstanding wearing wrist props, while the other gathering simply wore the wrist braces. At the end of the study, those in the back rub gathering would be advised to hold quality and less torment. A second study in the Journal of Bodywork and Movement Therapies had carpal shaft patients do over toward oneself rub every day and get an expert back rub week by week for four weeks contrasted with a control bunch. The back rub gathering had less ache and nervousness and preferable grasp quality over the control bunch.


You needn't bother with an arrangement, a spa or considerably someone else to harvest the profits of a back rub. "When its impractical to get an expert treatment, you can alleviate regular hurts and strain on your own," clarifies Elizabeth Bryan Bragg, an authorized back rub specialist at Shift PT in New York City.

"Knead support gear, for example, Theracane, Backnobber and froth rollers are incredible apparatuses to use for myofascial discharge and unwinding of tired, tied muscles," includes Scott Danberg, chief of wellness at the Pritikin Longevity Center & Spa in Miami. Be that as it may, regularly all you truly need are your own particular hands and in a few cases, a tennis ball, to help discharge the genuine annoyance, shoulders and back. "Simply note that you ought to never put immediate weight on your spine," includes Bragg.

Attempt these five over toward oneself rub strategies to beat neck and back agony.

Neck Manipulation - Possible Cause of Stroke

Neck manipulation has been associated with cervical dissection, a type of arterial tear that can lead to stroke. Although a direct cause-and-effect link has not been established between neck manipulation and the risk of stroke, healthcare providers should inform patients of the association before they undergo neck manipulation.

Treatments involving neck manipulation may be associated with stroke, though it cannot be said with certainty that neck manipulation causes strokes, according to a new scientific statement published in the American Heart Association's journal Stroke.

Cervical artery dissection (CD) is a small tear in the layers of artery walls in the neck. It can result in ischemic stroke if a blood clot forms after a trivial or major trauma in the neck and later causes blockage of a blood vessel in the brain. Cervical artery dissection is an important cause of stroke in young and middle-aged adults.

"Most dissections involve some trauma, stretch or mechanical stress," said José Biller, M.D., lead statement author and professor and chair of neurology at the Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine. "Sudden movements that can hyperextend or rotate the neck -- such as whiplash, certain sports movements, or even violent coughing or vomiting -- can result in CD, even if they are deemed inconsequential by the patient."

Although techniques for cervical manipulative therapy vary, some maneuvers used as therapy by health practitioners also extend and rotate the neck and sometimes involve a forceful thrust.

There are four arteries that supply blood to the brain: the two carotid arteries on each side of the neck, and the two vertebral arteries on the back of the neck. The influence of neck manipulation seems more important in vertebral artery dissection than in internal carotid artery dissection.

"Although a cause-and-effect relationship between these therapies and CD has not been established and the risk is probably low, CD can result in serious neurological injury," Biller said. "Patients should be informed of this association before undergoing neck manipulation."

The association between cervical artery dissection and cervical manipulative therapies was identified in case control studies, which aren't designed to prove cause and effect. An association means that there appears to be a relationship between two things, i.e., manipulative therapy of the neck and a greater incidence of cervical dissection/stroke. However, it's not clear whether other factors could account for the apparent relationship.

The relationship between neck manipulation and cervical artery dissection is difficult to evaluate because patients who already are beginning to have a cervical artery dissection may seek treatment to relieve neck pain, a common symptom of cervical artery dissection that can precede symptoms of stroke by several days.

You should seek emergency medical evaluation if you develop neurological symptoms after neck manipulation or trauma, such as:

• Pain in the back of your neck or in your head;
• Dizziness/vertigo;
• Double vision;
• Unsteadiness when walking;
• Slurred speech;
• Nausea and vomiting;
• Jerky eye movements.

"Tell your doctor if you have recently had a neck trauma or neck manipulation," Biller said. "Some symptoms, such as dizziness or vertigo, are very common and can be due to minor conditions rather than stroke, but giving the information about recent neck manipulation can raise a red flag that you may have a CD rather than a less serious problem, particularly in the presence of neck pain."