Infrared sauna blankets and fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is the name for a condition in which people have long lasting pain in many places in the body. The pain is often in the muscles and the tissue around them, can move from place to place and has usually been there for longer than three months. Many people also mention fatigue, stiffness when getting up, poor sleep and difficulty with concentration or memory.

Physical examinations and scans show nothing broken. Muscles, joints and bones are not damaged. That makes fibromyalgia hard for many people to explain to those around them, and sometimes hard to discuss with a doctor too. The diagnosis is made based on the pattern of symptoms and how long they have lasted, after other causes have been ruled out.

Explanations of exactly how fibromyalgia develops differ. People often talk about a change in the way pain signals are processed in the nervous system, with sleep, stress and how much you can handle also playing a part. That is a description of what is observed, not a conclusive explanation.

There is no pattern that fits everyone. What follows is a description of symptoms that often occur together, not a list you have to match.

Heat is one of the oldest ways people look after themselves when they feel physical discomfort. A warm bath, a hot water bottle, a long shower, a heat pad on the lower back. That people find this pleasant is not a medical fact and does not need medical backing either. It is comfort, and comfort is worth something in itself.

What happens physically when heat reaches the skin is fairly well described. The blood vessels in the skin widen, circulation at the surface increases and skin temperature rises. With enough heat, the body starts to sweat to cool down. These are ordinary reactions to heat and they apply to everyone, with or without fibromyalgia.

What those reactions mean for pain in fibromyalgia is a different question, and that is where the trail ends. The fact that the skin becomes warmer and better supplied with blood does not mean that symptoms decrease. Advertising often takes that step, but it is not supported by evidence.

An infrared sauna blanket is a foldable blanket with heating elements. They give off far infrared heat, radiation you cannot see but can feel. The heat reaches your skin directly, without first warming the air in the room. You can read how that works technically in how infrared heat works, and the physical reactions during a session are described in what an infrared sauna blanket does to your body.

That describes the product. It is a heat source with an adjustable temperature and a timer. It is not a medical device, it is not designed for any medical condition and it has not been tested or approved for that either.

There has been research into heat and fibromyalgia. There is not much of it, and what exists has significant limitations. Below is roughly what is known, with an honest look at the weak points.

Most research is about heat applications in a care setting: warm baths, heat packs and sessions in a clinic with equipment made for that purpose. A few small studies looked at mild infrared warming in a cabin or under a device. None of that research was carried out with an infrared sauna blanket like the one you use at home.

Where such studies report a difference, it usually concerns small differences in scores that participants filled in themselves, measured shortly after the session. That is not the same as a proven effect.

Clinical guidelines for fibromyalgia focus on explaining the condition, on gradually built up exercise and on support with sleep and stress. Heat applications appear in them at most as something some people find pleasant themselves, not as a recommended approach. An infrared sauna blanket does not appear in them at all.

That last point is not a hidden negative result. It simply means the question has never been properly researched.

This is the most important part of this page. When all is said and done, the list of things we do not know is a lot longer than the list of things we do know. We do not want to talk around that, because that uncertainty is exactly what you should take away from this page.

Online you will find stories from people who say heat does them good, and stories from people for whom it did not agree at all. Both kinds of stories are real, and neither is enough to draw a general conclusion from.

Fibromyalgia symptoms fluctuate on their own, with better and worse periods. Anyone who starts something new during a bad period often sees an improvement afterwards that would have come without that new thing too. On top of that, people who have bought something like to notice a result, and people who noticed nothing usually do not write about it. That makes individual experiences unsuitable as evidence, however sincere they are.

Oversensitivity to stimuli is common with fibromyalgia. Sound, light, busyness, touch and also temperature can hit harder than for others. Heat is a stimulus, which means the response to it can go any way.

Some people find heat calming. Others become restless, get a headache, feel drained afterwards or notice that their symptoms are more intense the next day. Lying still itself also plays a part: half an hour in the same position is relaxing for one person and demanding for another.

There is no reliable way to know in advance which group you fall into. Nor is there any known characteristic that would tell you. If you want to try heat, it is wise to keep it short and on a low setting, and to talk to a healthcare provider about it first.

Important to know: you can decide at any moment that it is not for you. That is a perfectly fine outcome and not a failure. People with fibromyalgia are often told they should keep going a bit longer. With heat there is no reason at all to do that if it does not suit you.

People with fibromyalgia often also have other conditions and take medication at the same time. That does not automatically make heat unwise, but it does make talking it through beforehand more important. Heat asks something of your circulation and your fluid balance, and that is not equally harmless for everyone.

The points below are reasons to talk to a doctor first, not a list of things you are not allowed to do. Only someone who knows your situation and your medication can weigh that up.

• Heart or blood vessel problems, heart rhythm disorders or a pacemaker.
• Low blood pressure, getting dizzy easily or having fainted in the heat before.
• Pregnancy.
• Fever or an acute inflammation.
• Reduced feeling in the skin, for example due to nerve damage or diabetes.
• Open wounds, a recent operation or skin conditions.
• Medication that affects blood pressure, sweating or fluid balance.
• A previous bad reaction to a sauna, warm baths or other heat.

Apart from fibromyalgia, a few basic rules apply to any heat source: drink before and after, do not use heat after alcohol or a heavy meal, do not fall asleep while using it and always set the timer. Read more about this in safe use of infrared sauna blankets and when an infrared sauna blanket is less suitable.

If you use heat while the feeling in your skin is reduced, you will not notice a temperature that is too high in time. That is why this point is mentioned separately for almost every heat source.

With fibromyalgia, your GP, rheumatologist or physiotherapist is the person who knows your symptoms, takes your medication into account and can see the bigger picture. A webshop cannot do that. What we can do is offer a few questions that make the conversation easier.

It also helps to know what support for fibromyalgia normally focuses on: explaining the condition, exercise that matches what you can handle, attention to sleep and stress, and sometimes medication or support from a pain team. That is where the gains are sought. Something like heat can exist alongside that as a personal preference, but it should not take the place of what you have agreed with your healthcare provider.