Massage guns
Massage guns are one of the biggest-selling fitness devices of the past few years. Listener Clare wanted to know, can they really help you warm up before exercise and recover more quickly after? And is it possible they might actually do some damage?
There are recovery methods that are more proven than massage guns to help – and cheaper to boot.
Massage guns can cost anything from £15 to more than £500. They have a vibrating silicone head that delivers percussive pressure onto the muscle. Manufacturers claim this ‘vibration therapy’ increases blood flow and helps the user warm up before exercise, perform better during it and eases soreness afterwards by reducing inflammation.
By bringing more blood and oxygen to the muscle, they could help with warming up before a workout, suggests Ashley James, from the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy. With regards to recovery, research is in its infancy, he says, but “the evidence that does exist will demonstrate that localised vibration will improve delayed onset of muscle soreness, or DOMS.” However, the numbers are small. A review on sports massage by the British Medical Journal found that it reduces DOMS by about 10%.
One Harvard study does outline how vibrational massage could help muscles heal quicker… in mice. Scientist Stephanie McNamara explained how they’d developed a massage gun for use on mice and showed it can flush out immune cells called neutrophils that can impair healing, explains. Stephanie is sold: “I think it’s an exceptional tool.”
Ashley suggests there are recovery methods that are more proven to help – and cheaper to boot – like taking a walk, using a static bike or going for a swim. Plus, he warns, massage guns could cause further damage if used on an injury: “If you have pulled your hamstring, or pulled your calf, then I would absolutely avoid its use.”
To decide whether massage guns should make your Christmas list listen to the full episode here.
Air purifiers
Air purifiers promise to remove harmful pollutants and allergens from your home. But how effective are they? Listener Laura, a respiratory doctor, wanted to know whether they could help her patients. Is an air purifier better than good old-fashioned ventilation?
Most air purifiers contain a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate absorbing) filter. They remove particles like pollutants, allergens, bacteria and viruses up to a certain size. “On average,” says Dr Elizabeth Cooper, a researcher at UCL, “these air purifiers reduce the particles by about 50%, so they do a pretty good job.”
However, some purifiers claim to remove gases like formaldehyde from the atmosphere, and this is where it gets a little more ‘murky’, explains Alastair Lewis, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry at the University of York. “Gases will pass through a filter relatively unharmed” so air purifiers claiming to filter gases will have various added technology, and “a lot of them are rather untested.” Some types of filtration can even produce worrying bi-products: When an oxidative reaction is used to filter out VOCs (volatile organic compounds), it can create ozone, which in itself can irritate the lungs and impair breathing function.
There is not much evidence that air purifiers help long-term respiratory illnesses, says Elizabeth. But for short-term conditions like seasonal allergies, breathing problems – and in areas of high pollution – there’s better evidence that air purifiers can help. Alastair says: “They could bring great relief to people who are acutely effected by air quality.”
But for the majority of us, says Alastair, it could well be that you can get just as much of an effect by opening the window. A much cheaper fix (if the outside air isn’t too polluted). Especially as, for real impact, you need an air purifier in every room in the house. “They’re just not powerful enough to move enough air to purify the whole home,” says Elizabeth.
To hear more about Greg’s investigations into air purifiers, listen to the full episode here.
And for more of Greg’s investigations into the latest ad-hyped products, listen to all the episodes of Sliced Bread so far on BBC Sounds.
The information contained in this article was correct at the time of publish on 7 December, 2022.
