Benefits And Side Effects Of Pain Relief Cream

admin January 24, 2017 Health Tips, Pain Relief Cream No Comments

Anyone who has body pain wants to get rid of them right away. They make our life and work uncomfortable. That is why human beings have in various methods for pain treatment. Heat therapy, cold therapy, massage, cupping, oral medications, electric treatment, etc. are some most popular option for pain relief.

Among all the pain treatment methods, pain relief cream or gel relief cream is the one that is easy to use, effective, and safe. It is so much more convenient than heat therapies or electric treatment. It is safer than oral medication. These are the reason why pain relief cream presents in every household. However, every medication has its own benefits and side effects. Many people focus on the benefits while neglecting the side effects. This article will provide you with a view from both sides.

What Is Pain Relief Cream?

Topical analgesics are pain relievers that are applied by spraying or rubbing into the affected skin areas. Pain relief cream is a form of topical analgesics. Due to its convenience and availability, pain relief cream is among the most common pain relievers. In this post, we are talking about non-description pain relief cream.

Pain relief creams are often applied on slight pains and aches for your muscles and skin, minor back or muscle pain from straining, or joint pain from osteoarthritis. There are some pains that pain relief cream can’t treat. However, they are often serious pain that need doctor examination and prescription. For everyday pain, pain relief cream is the optimum choice.

Many pain relief cream and gel are non-description medication that you can buy easily without a description from a doctor. They are available in drugstores, supermarket, or even e-commerce website. There is often a usage guideline for each kind of pain on how to apply the cream, and how many times to apply the cream, etc. There is nothing as special requirements for using the pain relief cream.

Benefits And Side Effects Of Pain Relief Cream?

Many people are using pain relief cream thinking it has no side effects. Though it is almost true that there are few drawbacks to pain relief cream, there are some cons of pain relief cream that users need to know to avoid.

Benefits of Pain Relief Cream

Less Side Effects compared to oral pain relief

Taking oral pain relief can cause various side effects including depression, fatigue, heartburn, nausea, skin rash, ulcers, upset stomach. They can slightly affect your life and will go away soon. However, they can turn seriously dangerous sometimes.

If you take pain pills and tablets in a long period of time, there are possibility of organ damage because anything taken by mouth will go through the procession of liver and kidneys. Acetaminophen in some pain reliever, if used in a long time, is toxic to the liver. Ibuprofen and naproxen can be the reason for kidney problems. Opioids can cause the brain’s production ability of dopamine impaired, which lead to depression.

In the case of topical pain reliever, there are no such risks. The cream when absorbed into the skin will do its job by disrupting the pain signal transmission to the brain and alleviate pain. Besides, pain relief cream is pretty effective with pain, inflammation and muscle tension.

Localized Treatment

Pain relief cream is a localized treatment. When we rub the cream into the affected area, it will reduce the pain at that area. We can easily target problem areas thanks to the flexibility of cream texture. It can apply almost everywhere. Taking oral paint treatment for example. When you use oral medication to reduce pain, the pain medication will go through the bloodstream and impact the entire body along with the pain area.

Concentrating effects of medicine enhance the treatment power of the cream. It requires a smaller amount of medicine to treat the same pain area when compared to oral medications. With pain relief cream, the control of application is in your hands.

No risk of being addicted or dependent of medication

Many patients get addicted or dependent of the oral medication they take for a long time. They can’t help but take it again and again. In some case, patients increase the dosage by themselves to enhance the effect of the drug. It is not only ineffective with the pain they are suffering but also harm their body. With pain relief cream, you will get addicted or dependent of it because you only use the cream externally.

Medication dependence and addiction often end up creating major threat to patients’ health. After time, the medication efficacy to the pain reduce. The additional amount of drug absorbed to the body harm the organs and their health. In some cases, the damage can be so severe that is hard to cure.

Quick Effect

Among the benefits of pain relief cream, the speed is one of the most amazing effect. Since the cream is absorbed almost instantly into the skin and impacts the nerve there to enter and interrupt the pain signal transmission to the brain. If you take oral medications, you will have to wait for it to be processed by the liver and kidneys, then travel through the bloodstream to the affected areas and the whole body. It will take quite a while before you start to feel the different.

When you are in pain, one second waiting can feel like one hour. This is where pain relief cream proves its necessity. Rub a sufficient amount of pain cream into the pain area and feel the uncomforting pain going away almost right away. You do not need to sit there suffering while waiting for the medication to take effect. The wait can be a torture to many people. It is such a relief to the patients.

Easy Application

It is safe to say that it is so easy to apply pain relief cream for pain alleviation. You may need a place to lay down for pain treatment with TENS units, massage devices, or heating pad. You may need to stay near the electricity outlet so that the equipment can work. You may die looking for a bottle of water to take your pain pills. That is all what happen with other methods of pain treatment. With pain relief cream, on the other hand, you only need the cream itself and your hands.

Rubbing the cream into the affected areas require no special skills. There are some pain relief creams that recommend massage to maximize the effect of the cream. But you can understand the massage here means rubbing well. That is all you need. When we get pain, the default reaction is to reach for a pain relief method. In such case, nothing can beat pain relief cream.

Portability

Pain relief cream is portable. You can bring it on your travel to use for any possible injury or pain. It does not need a large space in your luggage for a pain relief cream or gel tube. It is useful for the leg pain and muscle tension caused by long walk or climb. After you enjoy your trek, you can use pain relief cream to relax the muscle, to prepare for the next day. There is no worry of looking for electricity source, making a fire, or spending your water on taking oral medication. That is the best way to fully enjoy your journey

Side Effects of Pain Relief Cream

As any medication, pain relief cream is not something so magic that it has no side effect. There are side effects of pain relief cream that users need to know and pay attention to when using. Some significant drawbacks of the topical pain relievers that is listed below:

Pain relief cream is not for wounds and open injuries

You can’t apply pain relief cream into wounds and open injuries. This notice apply to irritated skin with scratch, too. It will only worsen the situation and may cause infection. Not to mention, rubbing the pain relief cream into such areas can be awfully painful just to imagine.

Some pain relief creams have strong odor or unpleasant smell

Many pain creams carry the smell of its active ingredients. The smell can be strong and make you uncomfortable. It can cause sneeze, running nose to people who are smell sensitive. Some manufacturers try to cover the strong odor with fragrance smell. It only worsens the experience with the awful smell of the combination. When the small attaches to your clothes, it will haunt you’re the entire day.

Pain relief cream can cause irritated skin

Some people with sensitive skin may experience itchy and irritated skin. It should go away after a while. However, if the situation worsens and lasts for a long time, please stop using the pain relief cream and go to see a doctor for a checkup. There is also possibility of allergic reactions if the users are allergic to one or some ingredients in the pain relief cream.

Conclusion

As you can see, the benefits of topical cream surpass its side effects. Pain relief cream is a common pain reliever that every household should have one in their medical list. It takes a short time to alleviate the pain. It requires no special equipment to apply. It is safe with slight side effects that are avoidable.

Before I end my post, I have some advice for you when using pain relief cream to maximize the benefits of pain relief cream and avoid the side effects:

Consult your doctor or pharmacist

Although pain relief cream is pretty safe, it is still a medication. Check with you doctor if the pain relief cream can treat you pain. Is there any dangerous ingredients in the cream? Is the cream suitable with your health condition? If you are under any medication prescription, it is so much more vital to consult your doctor on the application of pain relief cream.

After all, you want your pain alleviated, but no other harm. So, bring the topical cream you want to use to your doctor for some advice. It is never redundant to be careful with additional check and confirmation.

Have an allergic reaction or hypersensitivity check prior to the application of it

If you have a sensitive skin, or history of allergic reactions, I would recommend you perform an allergy and hypersensitivity check before you use any pain reliever. There might be an ingredient or the interactions of ingredients that cause allergic reactions. When it happens, you will few worse than before with the pain only.

Allergic reaction can be mild most of the time, but can be mortal in some rare case. No one know which category we may fall into so prior check is necessary. If you are allergic to aspirin, you need to check because many pain relief creams contain some same ingredients with aspirin.

Follow the instruction

It is true to any medication application to follow the instruction. Only apply pain relief cream as many time as the manufacturers recommend. Overuse of pain relief cream may damage your skin wit possibility of burning skin, itchy skin that are not comfortable at all.

Do not apply on wounds and open injuries. The cream will worsen the wound condition with high chance of infection.

Do not use heating pad or other devices if there is no statement from the manufacturer that your pain relief cream can be accompanied by those.

Be cautious with children

Consult your doctor when you want to use pain relief cream on children under the age of two. Children skin is sensitive. There immune system is not complete yet. So, always be cautious with any medication application on children.

The cream is for external use so put it away to reach of the children to avoid any chance of children swallow the pain relief cream.