If you enjoy exercise or playing sport then every now and again you are sure to feel the odd muscle twinge or sustain an injury. If this is the case then keeping instant cold packs in your home or gym bag can be a sensible option. These smart products are the modern equivalent of the traditional ice pack and can be used to provide some quick relief to a joint or muscle injury. Using them will reduce swelling which in turn helps to reduce the pain and speed up healing.
However instant cold packs also have other uses. If you are out in hot weather they can be a quick way of cooling down as well as relieving the itching of an insect bite and packing some for a picnic in the outdoors can be a good idea. They can also be used for cooling down a fever and if you have children who are prone to minor bumps and bruises having some available can be common sense. All these applications are good reasons to keep these handy products in your home.
Instant cold packs are simple to use and are basically a one time product that are disposed after use. They comprise a pouch which is made up of two separate compartments, one of which is filled with water and the other which is filled with a chemical. Typically this can be ammonium nitrate or urea and when these are combined with the water it causes a reaction which rapidly cools the pack down for use. They do not require prior freezing and using them is as simple as squeezing the pack where shown which breaks a seal between the two compartments and mixes the ingredients. Once cold, the pack remains pliable and easy to apply although care needs to be taken that they do not leak as it is not a good idea to let the chemicals touch your skin.
The benefit of using this type of cold pack is its speed of use. In the case of an injury, time is important and the quicker you can apply a cold compress the better it can help. As they require no prior freezing and work in seconds, instant cold packs are the best type to carry in a gym bag just in case they are needed. They are widely available from various outlets with internet retailers, drug stores, discount stores and sports stores being good places to find them.
Typically they are affordable products to purchase with prices starting from less than a dollar up to around $2 to $3. Examples of this include Swift First Aid which retails a box of 5 for around $4, First Aid Only which charges $22 for a box of 20 and ACE which sells a box of 12 for around $40. This makes instant cold packs affordable to purchase and for the benefits gained it can be a good item to buy.
Instant cold packs are a quick and clean way of applying cold therapy to an injury. This and their other applications make them an effective product and everyone should have a few in their home to make life easier.