USB-powered infrared pad heals road warrior's aches

It's not often that we see a USB-powered gizmo claiming to "relieve tiredness, muscle strain or even pain," and considering that we can't leave our posts even for a moment to see an actual doctor (a non-robotic one, at least), we couldn't be happier about this development. The USB Far Infra-Red Pad gets all the power it needs from a spare USB port, and apparently emits infrared light onto your weary arms, back or biceps in order to leave you feeling completely revitalized. Interestingly, the manufacturer warns that leaving it on one spot for over 15 minutes can cause all sorts of problems, so yeah, there's that. Anyways, those who spend the majority of their time slaving over a keyboard can snap this (likely worthless) thing up for $21.99, but don't expect any miracles, alright?

[Via EverythingUSB]

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 3rd 2007 10:42AM]

maybe it's just the photonerd speaking, but i could see a use for light-painting IR with this.

[bombastinator Posted Nov 3rd 2007 11:03AM]

depends on how bright it is. If you want to try it though, these kinds of infared heating pads can also be had as battery powered versions for less money.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 3rd 2007 11:24AM]

so something as simple as infared light can heal me, but the same person who uses this shit would tell me a cellphone can't hurt me.

the tide either flows both ways, or no ways.

[thethirdmoose Posted Nov 3rd 2007 12:12PM]

maybe cell phones heal you, too?

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 3rd 2007 12:21PM]

kickass!

like those magnet wrist braceletts I bet my harddrive magnets heal me when my laptop is on my lap.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 3rd 2007 12:30PM]

Umm.. no, it does go both ways.

For example, Ultra Violet light stimulates Vitamin D production in the skin (UVB specifically) and is also used as a treatment for Seasonal Affective Disorder. We all know what can happen with over exposure.

Gamma Radiation is actually used in some forms of radiography. Again, useful and fairly harmless medical applications. Over exposure to gamma radiation can cause some nasty side effects however, including nausea, hair loss and death.

So my point is that yes it is entirely possible to say that one type of electromagnetic radiation can be beneficial to the body at a specific level and exposure while saying another type of electromagnetic radiation has no affect or is detrimental.

That being said I doubt these things do anything since we are exposed to IR light all the time and it doesn't seem to have any affect.

[(Unverified) Posted Nov 5th 2007 10:50PM]

>Over exposure to gamma radiation can cause some nasty side effects however, including nausea, hair loss and death.

Hulk angry! Hulk smash! Hulk...what? Hulk only have six months to live? GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

[Dummy00001 Posted Nov 4th 2007 8:51AM]

Well, I had this problem before.
Now I don't.

My solution is bit more complicated: I now work 95% of time in command line so that my hands (wrist in particular) do not do any unnecessary moves. Requires touch typing skill and system which allows to do work in command line of course (e.g. Linux).

If your wrist is overburdened by small mouse movements and oft hand position changes - that thing will NOT help...