Icy Hot Research Paper

Words: 735
Pages: 3

Body pain. Can be from arthritis and joint pain to muscle aches and strains. Icy Hot can help relieve that pain. Icy Hot comes in many forms from patches to a balm to a cream. What Icy Hot is, like what its name implies, a medicated substance that will help relieve pain in the body where it starts off feeling like a cooling sensation then gradually leads to a hot sensation. Whether it is a cream or the Smartrelief Icy Hot or a patch, they all work in the same way; they all block pain signals right at the nerves. Icy Hot is composed of many different ingredients. The main ingredient of Icy Hot cream is methyl salicylate. It composes around 30% of the medication. This is an organic compound that comes from the wintergreen plant family. The chemical formula of methyl salicylate is C8H8O3and to create this compound one simply adds salicylic acid and methanol which is C7H6O3+CH3OHC8H8O3+H2O. What this compound does is that it is a pain reducing and anti-inflammatory ingredient. This ingredient is a catabolism compound which means that it breaks down molecules that are complex. This breakdown of complex molecules results in heat being released which means that this is an exothermic reaction when the ingredient touches the skin. This is what gives of the heat sensation of Icy Hot. …show more content…
It composes about 10% of the medication. Menthol is also another organic compound that is extracted from mint. The chemical formula for menthol is C10H20O. Menthol is an ingredient that gives off a cooling sensation by stimulating the cold receptors of the body and it also “act as a mild anesthetic”. This ingredient also is solid at room temperature but liquefy slightly above room temperature which means that at the touch of the skin it will liquefy. This temperature reducing ingredient is what makes one feel the cooling sensation when a patch is placed in our back, neck, or