In most of my posts about pain relief gift ideas, I’ve always included the TENS unit as one of the top gift ideas. In fact, I’ve tried to introduce it to anyone I know from my family to my friends and co-workers who are suffering from muscle and joint pain. Unlike other posts where I’ve introduced different practical gift ideas, in this special post, I’ll focus only on the TENS device, including answering fundamental questions such as what it is, how it works, and which ones are rated as the best TENS units by pain sufferers.
Continue readingArchive: Problem Solving Gifts
Gifts for Someone with Carpal Tunnel Pain
I have a post about carpal tunnel syndrome causes and relief, in which I briefly mentioned some products and gift ideas that are recommended for those with carpal tunnel pain. This post goes into the details of best and most practical gift ideas for someone who’s suffering from carpal tunnel pain.
Carpal tunnel pain and wrist pain can seriously affects your work and your daily activities as besides the irritating pain, you may also lose the power of your grip. Your hand and fingers become less flexible, making some simple activities like holding things, turning door or car keys, typing, writing etc. suddenly become harder and painful.
Gifts for People with Arthritis
I had a co-woker in Austin, Texas who has severe arthritis. He got arthritis from some immunization shot since early age. Even now I remember how painful it was for him during winter, and how difficult and painful it was for him to just bend down, or twist a bottle cap.
Most people with arthritis have some sort of physical pains and even physical limitations; like my friend, his fingers were always stiff, and due to the severe pain on his leg, he couldn’t even easily sit or bend down. For someone with arthritis, a gift or a bundle of gifts that would help with getting around more easily, doing chores around the house more easily or would offer comfort and relaxation will be ideal.
Continue readingGifts for People with Back Pain
Anyone can have back pain, but several factors that may increase the risk are our age, poor sitting posture, poor physical fitness, jobs that required long hours of sitting still or lifting weight, being pregnant, being overweight, and suffering from certain disease like arthritis. Back pain can range from a mild but constant ache to a sudden and sharp pain. If your friends or relatives are suffering from back pain or “having a bad back” as my mom referred to it, below are some practical gift ideas specifically for people suffering from different kinds of back pain and condition. Hopefully these gifts will help alleviate the pain or even better, make it go away naturally.
Gifts for People with Ankle Pain
Continuing with the pain relief topic, another area that is quite easy to get sprained and can cause a great deal of pain and inconveniences is the ankle. My co-worker has just had a sprained ankle after a minor slip on the sidewalk. She felt fine at the time, but a week later, she had to visit the doctor and was ordered to brace her foot with a splint for two weeks. Like wrist, foot or back pain, ankle pain usually comes from over-use, improper posture of the ankle over time, disalignment between ankle and the leg, injury (ankle sprain, fracture) or diseases such as arthritis, gout etc. Some pain can be eased with simple and natural treatment and relaxation technique such as massaging or elevating your feet, while others required special care by a specialist.
Continue readingGifts For People With Foot Pain
If someone you know suffers from foot pain, below are some gifts that they will truly appreciate when receiving the gifts and especially when and after using them. Foot pain is mostly caused by ill-fitting shoes/sandals, or letting the foot have too much contact with flat and hard surfaces without proper support, thus most gift ideas introduced below are to provide comfort, relaxation and support to the foot.
Continue readingErgonomics – Sitting or Standing at Work?
Recently, at my company there’s been some wave of change (or movement if I may) when one person after another have requested to change their work desks from sitting desks to standing desks. It’s happened quite frequently that now somewhere in the on-boarding process for new comers, there’re questions regarding ergonomics, and one of which is whether the new employees prefer having regular (sitting) desks or a standing ones.
That’s not all. Lately, whenever I check my Facebook, I see an ad for Varidesk, advertized as an add-on product of regular desk and could be attached to regular desk to turn it to a standing desk.
Continue readingGifts For People with Neck Pain
Besides back pain, neck pain is also a common problem today, especially for those who have to sit and work long hours in front of a computer everyday. I have a post about Gifts for people with Back Pain, which has been receiving great feedback, so here you go, a separate post dedicated to products and gift ideas for people with neck pain. Like back pain, neck pain can be a real … pain in the neck. Hopefully, the gift ideas below can help alleviate the neck pain for you or someone you know. Some products like the accupressure mat can actually help with preventing back and neck pain.
Gifts for People with Wrist Pain
Together with back pain, using computer, computer mouse or exercising (your wrist such as playing tennis or golf) too much and repeatedly day by day without proper support and resting will gradually stiffen the muscle around your wrist and cause wrist pains. The pain will likely go away naturally if you stop doing these same repetitive activities everyday; however, more often people just cannot afford to have that kind of time off for the wrist to heal.
Wrist pain can seriously affects your work and your daily activities as besides the irritating pain, you may also lose the power of your grip. Your hand and fingers become less flexible, making some simple activities like holding things, turning door or car keys, typing, writing etc. suddenly become harder and painful.
Continue readingNasal Filters for Allergy Sufferers
3M, the manufacturer of Filtrete, has taken air filter to another, yet personal level: they’ve made allergy nasal filters. These nasal filters are supposed to replace the old face masks and even allergy medicine that many allergy sufferers have been using. The filters are made of thin and breathable materials that you can put in the nostrils. They are also discreet, nearly invisible when put on, but are supposedly effective in filtering out pollen, pet hair, dander, dust etc.
So the next time you need to work outside in the yard, do BBQ, mow your lawn, clean out your cat litter box or handle anything that is dusty and smelly, try those nose filters out. 3M is in fact not the sole supplier, there’re a couple of nose filter providers out there. They all have fairly good rating on Amazon. Check them out yourself!