Heat Therapy for Older Adults: A New Way to Combat Leg Pain

Lower extremity peripheral artery disease (PAD) can be rough. It causes serious leg pain, makes walking tough, and lowers quality of life. Sadly, there aren’t many treatments that really help. Some research shows that heat therapy (HT) could make things better for heart health and physical abilities in people with PAD. The problem is, there aren’t many easy, practical ways for folks, especially elderly people, to do this therapy on their own. A group of researchers set out to fix this. They designed a new heat therapy device that elderly people with PAD could use at home. They took inspiration from a sports recovery device that uses cold water to treat muscles and created a prototype with a single-touch controller, heater, water pump, and air pump. It also includes leg sleeves with water-filled pads and inflatable bladders to adapt to different leg sizes. The device has safety features like temperature sensors that shut off automatically if it gets too hot and a built-in timer. Six people with PAD tested the device. They used it daily for 90 minutes over 12 weeks. The study wanted to see if the device was easy to use, safe, and made a difference in blood pressure, walking distance, leg strength, sit-to-stand performance, and quality of life. Before the 12-week trial, the participants had a 90-minute supervised session to see how their bodies reacted right after treatment. The heat therapy raised the skin temperature of the legs from about 92. 8°F to 101. 7°F in 90 minutes. It also helped lower blood pressure by an average of 13 mm Hg for systolic and 12 mm Hg for diastolic. All participants finished the 12-week program without any serious issues, showing that the therapy is safe. On average, they could walk 32 meters more in six minutes and had stronger calves. It also took less time to stand up from sitting. Improvements were seen in how fast they thought they could walk and their overall quality of life. This study is a big step forward in creating a portable heating system for older adults with PAD. It shows that using heat therapy at home is possible and safe. However, there are still things to improve, like making the device easier to carry and use, which could help people stick with the treatment longer. Tracking how well people follow the treatment plan is also important for this kind of unsupervised therapy to be successful.