Chronic Pain-Relief Device Uses Simultaneous Heat, Cold

Saringer Life Science Technologies Inc., a Canadian medical device manufacturer, has re-launched their newest hot and cold therapy device, patented product, ICE-O-therm. The ICE-O-therm is a small, hand-held, hyper-stimulating device that has been proven to be highly effective in temporarily reducing or eliminating pain in the joints, head, neck and other areas where chronic pain is typically situated.

“The ICE-O-therm works by applying both hot and cold therapy simultaneously to the affected area creating maximum stimulation. This phenomenon known as the Thermal Grill Illusion overwhelms the nerves in the area to block out pain," says engineer/inventor, John Saringer. In addition, four LED’s are engineered into the small applicator head to add additional, point-specific sensory stimulation. The combination of these competing stimuli distracts the brain from the sensation of pain, providing from four to more than eight hours of relief.

In the early 1990’s, John Saringer, a Canadian engineer and successful inventor of medical devices, began to study the effects of heat and cold for the temporary treatment of chronic pain. He observed that there were many devices available on the market designed either to provide some kind of sensory stimulation that will distract a person from their pain, or to interrupt the pain pattern. Noting that both heat and cold treatment products have been proven to be very effective sensory stimulators, Saringer observed that "contrast therapy," or the sequential application of heat and cold, was more effective than heat or cold alone. Saringer's contribution to this field of investigation is the enhanced pain relief control that comes from the concurrent application of heat and cold.