I recently was diagnosed with a cracked rib by my Doctor, and painkillers were not touching it much, so I looked into all different ways to ease the pain even slightly. I was looking at the range of different pain killers in Wilkinsons to see if there was something I had not tried, and it was whilst I was there I spotted a box of HeatAid Self Warming Heat Pads and they were only 99p.

I thought that they could at least provide a slight amount of relief and at 99p for a packet of 2, it was totally worth a try! I bought a box and took them home ready for some pain relief. The box provides you with 2 seperate heat pad sheets, which are rectangular in shape, and they both come in seperate packets inside the box.

The reason that these sheets come in seperate packets is that they are air activated, so do not open them until they are ready for use, as there is no way to unactivate them once they have been started off.

I had used some single use heat pads in the past before, but from a different brand. The box has a good list of useage directions and warnings on the back, so if you have not used anything similiar before, you will easily know how to use them.

The pads are of a good size, I would say about the same length as my forearm, and I found them to be the perfect fit for one side of my ribs, at the front. I originally thought that these heat pads were meant to be applied straight to the skin, but after reading the box, I found out that they have to actually be applied on top of clothing over the affected area.

There is a peeling plastic on the back of the pad which is peeled to reveal a perfectly sticky backing, which is what you use to apply the pad to your skin.

As soon as you activate the pad, you can feel it start to slowly get warmer. It does take a little while to reach full heat, which is about half an hour, but you can feel it warming up gradually over that time. The stickiness is perfect for holding the pads in place, and I found that it never moved off my clothes, no matter what I was doing. Despite this, I found it was really easy to remove this from clothes when I was done, and it left no marks or damage to my clothing at all.

The main idea of this pad is to relieve pain, and relax muscles. I was hoping that this would at least reduce the pain in my ribs a little bit, and I was pleased to find that these did actually help somewhat as it relaxed the muscles, and gently relieved a little bit of the pain. I wasn't expecting a large amount of relief as pain killers did not help much, but combined with pain killers, this pad actually was quite helpful.

I left this heat pad on over night, whilst I slept, even though it says on the box not too, and it was actually still quite warm when I woke up in the morning! I was really surprised to find that this was still warm, as I expected it to only last a couple of hours.

It says on the box not to apply these to skin, as this can cause burns, even at low temperatures, so make sure this is always applied to clothing and not the skin. I think this pad is pretty suitable for most body parts that are hurting. It is soft and flexible, so can be used on straight body parts, or bent around things like arms, ribs, legs or necks.

If you feel like you could do with some heat therapy, I would totally recommend these HeatAid Self Warming Pads. I have used both that came in the box, and I am happy to buy these again. I will be going to buy some soon. These can be good for people suffering with joint problems like Arthritis or Fibromylgia, as well as other aches and pains.

I am not sure if these are available in other stores, but they are available in Wilkinsons stores for just 99p a box! Next time you are in Wilkinsons, be sure to grab some of these as they really are fantastic, and I can not rate them well enough.

I give these a 5 out of 5 stars, and I totally recommend them to everyone.