Aching muscles? Try this (Deep Heat Fast Relief Rub)

Member Name: Nichelette

Product:	Deep Heat Fast Relief Rub
Date:	16/03/09 (171 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gives a nice heat sensation

Disadvantages: Smells terrible

I've read a few reviews of this product lately. As I seem to have used bucket loads of this stuff over the last couple of years I thought I'd give my two pence worth.

Deep heat is a mentholatum rub for 'fast relief from muscular aches and pains'. Although this review is for the cream version of the product a spray version is also available. The spray one is particularly useful if you have upper back or shoulder pains as you don't need someone to rub it in for you, or worse have to struggle to do it yourself. It's also good if you don't want to touch the cream (you'll see why later).

Sold in 35g, 67g and 100g tubes, the larger size will set you back around £5 from somewhere like Boots, with the middle one being a bit over £3, and the smallest a bit over £2. If you use this regularly like I used to it might be worth looking in your local 99p store where I used to buy the smaller tube from for *drum roll* .... 99p. Used regularly the small tube tended to last me around a month, though obviously this is heavily dependent upon how much you use it.

Deep heat rub comes in a fairly distinctive box which contains the tube of cream. Both the box and the tube look the same, fading in from red at the ends of the packaging to white in the centre, where the words 'deep heat' have been made to look like flames.

When you come to open the tube the first thing you will notice is the very strong smell. When you use this stuff everyone you come into contact with will know about it, after all, it is a mentholatum. The smell really does make your eyes want to water, but in my opinion it's worth the small sacrifice to be pain free. This is a reasonably thick cream, and it does take a little while to be absorbed into the skin, however it doesn't stain clothes so this isn't a huge problem.

To apply the rub simply squeeze a small amount out of the tube and massage it into the affected area. I've used this in the past for sport induced muscle pulls when I was at school, and more recently on my lower back area as I had very bad problems with it. Almost instantly you will feel this start to work. A lovely warming sensation is very quickly noticeable and lasts for around 20-30 minutes in my experience. If you continue to apply this 2-3 times a day as directed your muscles will start to feel considerably better.

One thing that I cannot stress enough is that as soon as you have finished applying this you should wash your hands. The cream takes a while to be absorbed and the last thing you'd want to do whilst this is happening is to accidentally rub your eyes or touch something you're going to eat with this stuff. Although I don't think either of these would cause any real medical problems (as long as you obviously aren't eating it from the tube or something equally stupid), this would cause a lot of temporary discomfort.

To be safe you shouldn't use this on broken skin (and really, with the burning sensation is causes, who would want to?), on under fives. Apparently you should also seek advice before using this if you are breast feeding or pregnant.

All things considered this is a good product which is worth its very reasonable price tag. Whilst it isn't an instant cure it will speed up your recovery, and the temporary heat sensation is a very nice feeling on a pulled muscle.

Summary: Relief for aching muscles