Hi all
Hope everyone is doing okay?
Does anyone have any advice on a cooling vest / jacket for running? I have googled and there are just so many! 
Thanks
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I won’t be running unless a miracle occurs, but I have gritted my teeth, flexed the credit card and just placed my first order with Thermapparel. I have tried a number of cheaper options over the years and they’re all so-so at best and mostly more-or-less rubbish. I’ll report back if Thermapparel turn out to work better. If you find something good, please do share.
Ooo will have a look. Am expecting to have to pay for a decent one. Good luck with it!
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Hi Alison, I hope you are well. Did you find your new vest useful? If so, would you be able to provide some comments on it and a link to the vest?
I have MS/Optic Neuritis and suffer from blurred vision when my body temperature increases. As the years go by and my symptoms worse, I have noticed that my vision appears to worsen with less of an increase in my body temperature. As a consequence, I would like to invest in some decent cooling wear which allows me to go for walks, garden, ride my bike, work at home and even run without my vision blurring so much / so quickly.
Feedback on your vest would be very useful. If you have any other hints / tips (other than the really obvious ones at Top tips for staying cool in the heat | MS Society) I would be grateful to receive them.
KR
Dan
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Thank you for asking. I was going to post an update after a little more experience, but the vest has been my constant daytime companion over the past couple of day, and I’m already feeling confident enough to reply to your kind request.
So far, so very good is the verdict. I went for one of the offers that includes two sets of cooling blocks, so you can have one cooling down while you’re wearing the other. That is working very well. When loaded with the cold blocks, the vest doesn’t even feel very cold, but it is deliberately a snug fit on the lower back and it really does a job. Mr alison100 has been amazed by how much I’m up and about and doing stuff in this heat and humidity and with far less grumbling than usual in summer. Now, it doesn’t work miracles, and my attempt to clean the shower screen earlier today turned out to be a bad idea and took a couple of hours in the room with the mobile aircon to recover from.
But have a look at their website; I think that the claims they make and the way their tech works are justified and fairly described. It’s an investment, no question. But so far I feel that it has been good value for money and a definite quality of life enhancer.
Two things to be aware of: I ordered their small vest, having carefully measured as per their instructions. It was way too small and I had to send it back to the US for exchange for a medium. I do not think I measured wrongly.
The good news was that they were very happy for me to hang on to the (relatively heavy) cooling packs during the exchange, so the postage to the US for the light little vest was very reasonable - WAY less than the very expensive carriage payable to them at the time of purchase. Second, be aware that there is eye-watering import duty to pay on goods delivered to the UK. I was expecting that, but it was more than I had thought.
Overall, I am very pleased with my purchase so far. I’ve bought similar things before and they just don’t work. This one really seem to help.
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By the way, I’m afraid that their various offers for MS-ers apply to US only.
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Thank you very much for taking the time to write this. I very much appreciate it, as I am sure others will as well. I am quite surprised by how difficult it is to find informed feedback on the performances of different cooling products.
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