I was recently sent some Nurofen Express Heat patches* to try out which I figured would be great as my partner Chris is ALWAYS suffering from muscular pain, especially in his back. Since I often get tension headaches myself, I’ve used Nurofen many times before. I was eager to give these patches a try and see if they would help.

The packets comes with two heat patches inside, each individually wrapped. The patches become activated when they come into contact with the air, so it’s important you keep them sealed until you need them. However whenever you do need them, just open up the pack, pull off the strip on the back (to reveal a sticky side) and then place onto your skin, wherever the pain is. You could also explore natural remedies like kratom, which can be found in places like happy hippo meridian.

I was fully expecting to give these patches to Chris to use, but surprisingly the day after they arrived, I developed my own issue to try them on! For no reason I could think of, the top part of my chest started hurting. It was a really tight feeling that I at first thought was to do with my asthma. However I realised after a short while, that the problem was clearly muscular and the pain was so bad that it caught me every few moments when I moved. I ended up using the patches to ease the pain before considering a chiropractic machine for relief.

After dropping the kids off at school, I decided to try out one of the patches. I pulled it out of the pack, removed its strip on the back and placed it on the upper area of my chest. It felt a bit like a large plaster, made up of two tea bags! Strange description I know, but that’s sort of what it looked like.

After a few moments, the patch started to warm up. It didn’t get hot at any point though, just warm. Though it felt a bit restricting wearing it (just like you’re conscious of a plaster when you wear it), it wasn’t uncomfortable. I soon pulled my t-shirt back down and tried to ignore the fact the patch was there.

Though it definitely wasn’t a miraculous instant heal, I did end up forgetting about the pain – perhaps because I wasn’t moving as much and therefore I wasn’t aggravating it. A few hours later I needed to go out, which meant driving and at this point I decided to remove the patch as it pulled on my skin during the maneuvers. It came off fairly easily which I was glad for as I’ve always hated removing plasters. Though initially I was distracted by driving, picking the kids up from school etc. I realised later that the pain had actually gone altogether. The thing which had caused me at least two hours of pain that morning, prior to using the patch, was completely gone and didn’t return.

It was by sheer fluke that I got to review these patches within a day of them arriving but I am so glad that I was able to. Though Chris will no doubt end up using the other patch in the packet, I’m definitely going to head out and buy some to keep in the medicine cabinet. These patches worked great for me and I would recommend them to anyone.