• by Les Luchter , May 17, 2023

 

Voltaren Arthritis Pain Gel aims to help America’s huge unpaid caregiver population through two initiatives: videos of exercises to help ease pain from fitness instructor Amanda Kloots, co-host of CBS’ “The Talk”; and interviews in which caregivers receive praise from the people they help.

The workout routines by Kloots, whose career as a dancer and fitness instructor led to her TV gig, are said to strengthen legs, arms and other areas of the body in which caregivers are susceptible to pain. The first video has already posted on Instagram, where Kloots has 740,000 followers, with the others scheduled to debut in the next couple of months.

"The physical demands of caregiving tend to go overlooked, when in reality caregiving requires a wide range of physical movements that can bring on joint pain," Stacey Harris, vice president of marketing, Pain at Haleon, said in a release.

The brand cited an Ohio State University study in which four out of five caregivers --  and particularly those who spend more than 21 hours weekly at the task -- said that pain has affected their caregiving abilities.

More than 53 million Americans provide care to family members or loved ones, according to the AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving.

In the interviews with caregivers and their loved ones, which explored how caregivers perceive their value, the subjects wore Emotiv EEG (electroencephalogram) headsets that measured their well-being based on brain wave changes. During each interview, the person being cared for comes on to tell the caregiver how much they appreciate them.

The results showed that caregivers experienced a 36% increase in their well-being after hearing from their loved ones about their value as a caregiver.

Voltaren has posted two of the interviews – with Carol and Bill – on its website and YouTube. There’s also a short video on Instagram.

Approved as a GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) prescription drug in 2017, Voltaren went over-the counter in 2020, and was spun off into Haleon with other GSK consumer brands last year.