Biofreeze
The History of Biofreeze
Biofreeze was first introduced to the world by a medical professional who was searching for a way to help his grandmother manage her arthritis pain. The formula he created consisted of the active ingredient menthol with a synergistic blend of inactive ingredients. The resulting formula offered quick, effective pain relief without the use of prescription drugs.
Today, Biofreeze products are providing relief to countless arthritis sufferers. But the pain reliever's unique, cooling formulation is also comforting to sore muscles and muscle sprains; easing back, shoulder and neck pain; reducing painful ankle, knee, hip and elbow joints and helping to lessen effects of muscular strains.
The company that launched Biofreeze was Performance Health, Inc. This company was acquired by the Hygenic Corporation in 2006. The Hygenic Corporation is located in Akron, Ohio and serves the hands-on healthcare professional markets with pain management solutions and with its Thera-Band brand product portfolio of Systems of Trusted Progression.
How It Works...
Traditional thinking is that the pain-relieving mechanism of action of menthol - the active ingredient in Biofreeze Pain Reliever - results from a counter-irritant effect. Simply put, a counter-irritant has an effect of overriding noxious pain signals traveling to the brain through a process modulated between pain-transmitting and non-pain transmitting neurons. This process, known as "gate control" or "gating," was first described by Melzak and Wall.
Biofreeze was first introduced to the world by a medical professional who was searching for a way to help his grandmother manage her arthritis pain. The formula he created consisted of the active ingredient menthol with a synergistic blend of inactive ingredients. The resulting formula offered quick, effective pain relief without the use of prescription drugs.
Today, Biofreeze products are providing relief to countless arthritis sufferers. But the pain reliever's unique, cooling formulation is also comforting to sore muscles and muscle sprains; easing back, shoulder and neck pain; reducing painful ankle, knee, hip and elbow joints and helping to lessen effects of muscular strains.
The company that launched Biofreeze was Performance Health, Inc. This company was acquired by the Hygenic Corporation in 2006. The Hygenic Corporation is located in Akron, Ohio and serves the hands-on healthcare professional markets with pain management solutions and with its Thera-Band brand product portfolio of Systems of Trusted Progression.
How It Works...
Traditional thinking is that the pain-relieving mechanism of action of menthol - the active ingredient in Biofreeze Pain Reliever - results from a counter-irritant effect. Simply put, a counter-irritant has an effect of overriding noxious pain signals traveling to the brain through a process modulated between pain-transmitting and non-pain transmitting neurons. This process, known as "gate control" or "gating," was first described by Melzak and Wall.
Gate control theory is based on the understanding that pain is transmitted by two kinds of afferent nerve fibers. One is the larger myelinated A-delta fiber, which carries quick, intense-pain messages. The other is the smaller, unmyelinated "C" fiber, which transmits throbbing, chronic pain. A third type of nerve fiber, called A-beta, is "nonnociceptive," meaning it does not transmit pain stimuli. The gate control theory asserts that signals transmitted by the A-delta and C pain fibers can be thwarted by the activation/stimulation of the nonnociceptive A-beta fibers and thus inhibit an individual's perception of pain.
More recently, laboratory researchers have discovered that menthol stimulates the TRPM8 cold receptors. Even though it has long been accepted that cooling and cold can induce analgesia it has been a poorly understood mechanism. As scientists have continued to isolate these specific heat-sensitive transient receptor potential (TRP) channels within our sensory neurons we are now able to have a much better understanding of the body's cutaneous temperature detection. With the isolation and further study of these specific TRPM8 receptors there is stronger evidence supporting the benefits achieved with the cooling effect of menthol in functioning as a topical analgesic while activating these receptors and the resulting consequent pain relief.