Temperature therapy garment and method
View Patent ↗A cold therapy garment formed from one or more clothing panels. Each clothing panel extends from a first edge to a second edge opposite the first edge and includes an integrated flexible gel sheet to be cooled prior to a user wearing the cold therapy garment, each integrated flexible gel sheet extending continuously across the clothing panel from the first edge to the second edge, and each integrated flexible gel sheet formed of a cold-therapy material having a semi-rigid form throughout a selected temperature use range.
1 . A cold therapy shirt, comprising:
a plurality of clothing panels forming a torso portion and first and second arms, the first and second arms each joined at upper ends thereof to the torso portion, and
wherein each clothing panel extends from a first edge to a second edge opposite the first edge and each clothing panel includes an integrated flexible gel sheet to be cooled prior to a user wearing the cold therapy shirt, each integrated flexible gel sheet extending continuously across the clothing panel from the first edge to the second edge, and each integrated flexible gel sheet formed of a cold therapy material having a semi-rigid form throughout a selected temperature use range, and
wherein the cold therapy material has a continuous constant thickness and extends continuously across the clothing panel from the first edge to the second edge, and the cold therapy material is soft throughout the selected temperature use range.
2 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein the cold therapy material is a hydrogel.
3 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein the selected temperature use range includes a range of 3 degrees Celsius to 20 degrees Celsius.
4 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of clothing panels includes a first panel extending at least from a torso right side to a torso left side, and the continuous sheet of cold therapy material of the first panel also extends at least from the torso right side to the torso left side and has the generally constant thickness of the cold therapy material across the first panel from the torso right side to the torso left side.
5 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 4 , wherein the first panel also extends at least from a lower end of the torso portion to an upper end of the torso portion, and the continuous sheet of cold therapy material of the first panel also extends at least from the lower end of the torso portion to the upper end of the torso portion and has the generally constant thickness of the cold therapy material across the first panel from the lower end of the torso portion to the upper end of the torso portion.
6 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 5 , wherein the first panel is a rear torso panel and the first edge is at a torso right side seam and the second edge is at a torso left side seam.
7 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein each panel comprises the sheet of cold therapy material enclosed between layers of fabric.
8 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , further comprising stretch stitching joining the plurality of clothing panels to one another, and the cold therapy shirt is sized and shaped to compress a torso and arms of the user.
9 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 7 , wherein the sheet of cold therapy material has a sticky outer surface directly overlaid by the layers of fabric.
10 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 7 , wherein the layers of fabric include an inner layer of fabric directly overlying an inner face of the sheet and an outer layer of fabric directly overlying an outer face of the sheet, and the outer layer is attached to the inner layer of fabric to encase the sheet.
11 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 10 , wherein the sheet has an inner face and an opposite outer face, and the inner face is covered only by a single layer of fabric and the outer face is covered only by a single layer of fabric.
12 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein each sheet of the cold therapy material has an inner face and an opposite outer face and is encased by a cover, the cover includes only a single layer of fabric over the outer face and only a single layer of fabric between the inner face and an interior of the garment.
13 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of clothing panels includes a first panel which extends around an interior with opposing edges of the panel joined to one another to form a sleeve, the sheet of temperature therapy material of the first panel also extends continuously around the interior of the sleeve from one of the opposing edge of the panel to the other of the opposing edge of the panel.
14 . The cold therapy shirt of claim 1 , wherein the sheet of cold therapy material of each clothing panel has an inner face extending continuously across the clothing panel from the first edge to the second edge and an outer face opposite the inner face and extending continuously across the clothing panel from the first edge to the second edge, and wherein the sheet of cold therapy material, including the inner and outer faces, is free of voids or breaks in the cold therapy material between the first edge and the second edge.
15 . Use of the cold therapy shirt of claim 1 to overly at least 30% of a user's body in a cold therapy treatment to activate brown fat.