TREATMENT BRIEF: Are Warm Undergarments Therapeutic?
OK, this study is not quite as crazy as it sounds: Nurses in Turkey experimented with full-body wool undergarments as well as wool bedding for patients with fibromyalgia (FMS). Believe it or not, the results were pretty good -- participants reported less pain, had fewer tender points, and scored better on the Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire.
How in the world could that be? The nurses say their objective was to keep the patients warm. Yep, it was that simple: they kept people warmer, and those people had fewer FMS symptoms.
As most of us know all too well, we can be extremely sensitive to the cold. It makes our muscles tense up, and our nerves can misinterpret "cold" as "pain" (this is part of tactile allodynia).
While I certainly don't think walking around in head to toe wool is a viable treatment option for us (especially since I'm allergic to wool, and the scratchiness alone would drive most of us crazy), it does point out the importance of maintaining a comfortable body temperature. Here's more on Living With the Temperature Sensitivity of Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, including a poll and some great suggestions from readers.
Do you notice that you feel better overall when you stay warm? Is this study crazy, or is there something to it? Leave a comment below!
Suggested Reading:
I do not wear wool but in the winter months I do wear long johns which helps to reduce the pain in my legs. I also keep a blanket in the car to keep my legs warm …
It is nothing to do with pain for me, but I seem to have a gene (runs in the family apparently as my dad and grand-mother have the problem–middle Eastern background as well) which made me, after some time into my chronic fatigue, become extremely sensitive to cold…
While I have wondered whether it was just due to adulthood/slowing metabolism, I’ve also wondered whether there is perhaps some correlation/predisposition with my fellow chronic fatigue sufferers, many of whom I know have thyroid problems (taking synthroid only helped temporarily for me). In any case, it is a challenging combination to have together, to put it mildly.
It is like my body slowly leaks heat to the extent that I previously did not even notice I was losing it until I was feeling very miserable–despite many doctors insisting you cannot get a cold from cold weather, I can guarantee you that I will get a cold if I do not wear enough (and feel quite awful in the process).
Being (as I had always been) in a colder climate didn’t help, but it must have taken me a year to figure out that the sometime extreme cold I was feeling (needing to wear literally layers of coats, hats, and pants periodically) could actually be remedied by wearing extra pairs of long underwear and socks (and ultimately realizing I could solve a lot of problems by moving to a warmer climate)–I’m a bit slow, I know. It came to a point where I could finally start to recognize where the “leaking” was occurring–I could sense, for example, that I needed an extra layer of t-shirts, etc.–but the hardest and most important one to detect was socks and long underwear especially. I particularly seemed prone to losing heat when lying down–if the bed felt cool to my back, I learned I needed to wear more layers quickly.
Having long underwear (I got some thin but very warm, non-wool, non-cotton fabric) keeps me at a reasonable temperature so that starting to sweat is usually enough for me to gauge whether I am finally warm enough. The only problem is ensuring I am not slowly starting to sweat too much, as that will make my shirts wet and of course lose heat (I don’t sweat much from my legs, so maybe that is why this works so well for me–but in any case, I found carefully paying attention to your body can really help identify the areas–even gloves, hats, scarves, etc.).
Even now that I (thank God!) finally moved myself to a warmer climate, in winters, I will still need to do this, with warmer seasons only needing two light layers of pants, or the like. And one of the most useful things I found for my “heat leaking emergencies” (when I’d lost enough heat to feel miserable without being able to restore my needed balance without waiting a long time for the effect of the extra layers to kick in) was an ultra-warm small modern electric heater–not relying on it too long, as it will really dry one too much, but for remedying my situation in cases where I didn’t have energy or was too absorbed to realize I needed to add some extra layers until it was too late and where I really needed to get things back to normal quickly. The heat on one’s face and chest really feels good at such a point as well, and gets things back to normal fairly quickly (and may avoid a cold if I am not too late).
But since delays of this kind really would impact my health/energy, I learned the hard way to put enough layers next to my bed, knowing that many times I wouldn’t have energy due to the fatigue to get out and get them, despite my great need for them.
It seems, as with exercise, that one of the hardest lessons for chronic fatigue, while obvious in hindsight, is to come to terms with one’s limits. The biggest barrier to my wearing extra clothes (once I realized the connection) was getting over the “I shouldn’t have to do this” (or “I shouldn’t have to do this so much”, or “How could I actually need to wear this many layers??”, etc.) resistance.
Just to add one more point–the odd thing with long underwear for me was that it didn’t seem it would help, as I wasn’t feeling cold at all in my legs (or feet, but especially my legs), yet given the surface area of our legs, having long underwear (and not just an extra layer of sweat pants, unless the temperature is relatively warm already) just did wonders for my overall warmth and stability. The challenge became gradually adding or peeling off layers as needed (since it takes energy for us to do that of course), but it is a challenge and routine I’ll now gladly go through given the benefits for me.
I also have Raynaud’s and hypothyroidism along with my CFS/fibromyalgia, so I can’t stand being cold.
Wool all over? Ewwww! I’m a very allergic person too, so that wouldn’t be a good option for me.
The best way to warm up and temporarily feel great all over is just to take a nice hot shower. In the 25 years I’ve had CFS/fibro, I haven’t found anything better.
My problem is that I’m as sensitive to heat as I am to cold, maybe more so. In the winter months, we tend to keep the house cold and dress very warmly. That way, I can remove clothes to cool down if I get too hot. I always dress in layers at work, because most places keep the heat too high for me. I have about a 10 degree range of temperature where I feel well. Too cold and my whole body hurts. Too hot, and I get dizzy and sick to my stomach.
For me, once the hands and feet start to get cold, I feel like I’m going to shut down. There’s nothing like a knee sock filled with aromatic jasmine rice (you can find it even at Walmart), nuked in the microwave for 2 minutes and draped around the neck or wrapped around your waist. Other than that, I think I’d rather buy CuddleDuds for under my clothing than going around scratching my rear with woolen skivvies on. ;0)
i have an electric mattress pad that really helps maintain my body temp. When i first got CFS, I shivered every time I laid down and was so cold i couldn’t sleep. i was really miserable. So the electric mattress pa gives a nice gentle heat. I have an electric blanket too.
Cold equals .
pain for me, causing cramping immediately
Try Australian/new zealand merino which has the itch bred out . Also “Superwash Wool has no itch . Thermofleece,Merino skins, Smartwool are a few brands +Icebraker