Pain Relieving Gel-Patches Kept Me From Retiring My Soccer Shoes

 ** A Geek Daddy received the featured product for free to review**

I've been playing in a late night adult men's indoor soccer league for years.  It used to be running around for an hour at midnight was no big deal.  Lately though it appears that my age is starting to catch up with me as I've been waking up the mornings after games a bit more sore as each year passes since I turned 40.  Just over the last few weeks, I was beginning to consider hanging up my cleats because of my back pain after playing games. Then I started trying out Salonpas Lidocaine 4% Pain Relieving Gel-Patches.  Wow! they really relaxed the pain I was feeling from the tweaks in my back.  Now I'm back in the game because it is fun to play again.

Hisamitsu America, the manufacturer of Salonpas products, sent me Lidocaine Pain Relieving Gel-Patches to try out that came along with an endorsement by Dr. Bob Arnot who has agreed to become a paid spokesperson for the brand after having personally used the products for himself.  I've been reading Dr. Arnot's monthly Q&A columns in my favorite monthly magazine MEN'S JOURNAL for years so his endorsement motivated me to try out the Salonpas Lidocaine Pain Relieving Gel-Patches for myself.  Well that and my wife urging me to do something after I was painfully limping around the house one morning after a soccer game.

Dr. Bob Arnot is a medical doctor who is also known as an avid athlete.  He's also an award-winning journalist who has authored twelve books and served as the Chief Medical Correspondent for the news departments of NBC and CBS.  He's used the patch after a rigorous paddle-boarding sessions to address his 'tennis elbow' and just like me found it has worked really well addressing his pain management issues.

Lidocaine is a local anesthetic that can be used on the skin to treat aggravated nerve pain.  For years it has been available as a prescription remedy in a 5% Lidocaine Patch doctors have used to address nerve pain in the back, neck, shoulders, knees and elbows.  Salonpas has attempted to replicate the benefits of the prescription medication in a format that is the maximum strength lidocaine allowed to be sold over-the-counter.  The company believes that its proprietary hydro-gel technology allows it to be as effective in many cases as the prescription patches because of how it provides a precise and even delivery of medicine to the site of the pain.  I haven't tried a prescription to compare the two but can say that the Salonpas Lidocaine 4% Pain Relieving Gel-Patch worked for my needs.

I appreciated that the patch was easy to put on and stayed in place as my body moved around throughout the day.  Plus it is unscented so there is no medicine smell or fragrance drifting around you while wearing it.  Costing about $12 for a box of six patches these are an affordable alternative to feeling sore all day.  They are available at major national pharmacies, grocery stores and mass merchandisers across the United States including Walmart, Target, Walgreens, CVS, and Rite Aid.
For more information, visit salonpas.us