hi I'm dr. David Hill and today we're going to be talking about how to use a hot water bottle now what would you use a hot water bottle for probably most often when you have an inflammatory process going on with a muscle or a joint it seems especially with muscle strains or muscle discomfort or muscle spasm that the application of heat gentle heat to the area seems to relax the muscle bring a little bit of blood flow in there sort of help you get through that spasm and discomfort and there are a variety of ways to do this you can use an electric heating pad you can microwave rag that's already wet or easy enough you can get one of these rubber bottles fill it with hot water now one important thing is how hot should the water be you said hot water do I boil it well ideally you'd rather not see the water greater than about 120 degrees direct contact with water over that temperature for even a short period of time puts you at some risk of scalding so when you're testing the water kind of run your hand under it but don't go for boiling more is not better in this case you're just looking for warmth another thing to consider is how long that hot water bottle is going to be there you want to sort of if you're getting uncomfortable move the thing take it off give it a little bit of rest again this is a generally helpful thing to do but this intervention is not the critical difference in any medical process so don't hurt yourself trying to make pain better now if you're using an electric heater instead of a hot water bottle don't sleep with it you don't want to start a fire you don't want to have an inadvertent burn wake up with a blister and I'd probably advise that with a very hot hot water bottle as well the nice thing about a hot water bottle is it does cool off over time so you're less risk of burning yourself one of the caution with a hot water bottle if heat is applied to the skin repeatedly in the same place over and over and over again it can damage the skin so you don't want to put a hot water bottle on the same place day in and for months or years at a time if something's hurting you that bad you probably want to work with your doctor on another more permanent solution to the pain talking about how to use a hot water bottle I'm dr. David Hill