Q: Which Will Work Better For My Painful Arthritic Joints Heat Or Cold
A: Applying heat or cold to a painful area is a simple, inexpensive method for relieving pain. Cold reduces swelling and numbs the area. Heat loosens up muscles, increases flexibility and increases circulation. For an acute injury, such as a pulled muscle or injured tendon, the usual recommendation is to start by applying ice to reduce inflammation and dull pain. Once inflammation has gone down, heat can be used to ease stiffness.
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For a chronic pain condition, such as osteoarthritis, heat seems to work best. However, some people find that cold also helps to dull the pain.
So whats the answer? Try them both and use whichever works best for you.
Exercise is an important part of treatment for osteoarthritis. Heat and cold can also be used to make exercising a little easier. Try using heat before exercise to loosen up muscles and cold afterwards to minimize any achiness.
For heat, soak in a warm bath, hot tub or whirlpool for about 20 minutes. Or take a warm shower. Dress warmly afterwards to prolong the benefit. A heating pad is another good way to warm up an area. You can also buy moist heat pads. Or, heat a damp washcloth in the microwave for about 20 seconds. Test it to make sure its not too hot. Wrap it in a dry towel and apply it to the painful area.
When To Avoid Hot And Cold Therapy
Under certain circumstances, you may need to avoid using cold therapy, heat therapy or both for your lower back pain. If you suffer from any of the following, we always recommend that you talk with your doctor to determine best practices for you.
- Open wounds, dermatitis, blisters or rashes
- Impaired sensations
Best Types Of Cold Therapy For Lower Back Pain Relief
- Reusable Cold Packs or Compresses – these can be applied locally to the lower back area .
- Cooling Topical Gels – an alternative to ice packs and can be rubbed directly on the lower back to target and reduce inflammation.
- Ice Massage – the combination of cold therapy and massage working together. Massage balls that can be frozen are perfect for this and can also be used while stretching.
- Ice Therapy Machines – this device consists of a water basin filled with ice water + hose that delivers constant cold relief to a flexible therapy pad that can be wrapped around your lower back.
- Ice Baths – often used in sports therapy, these allow you to fully submerge your back in ice cold water temperatures for a short duration of time.
- Whole Body Chambers – with the help of liquid nitrogen, these chambers drop to around -184 degrees fahrenheit to effectively reduce inflammation along with many other benefits.
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Common Causes Of Lower Back Pain
There are a large number of causes of low back pain. The reason why a persons back hurts will determine if heat or cold is the most appropriate remedy to help them feel better.
A common reason for people to experience pain in their lower back is muscle strain. This is generally caused by overexertion and often goes away within a few days. With muscle strain, the pain is localized in one area, dull and achy. However, just because it is not particularly serious in most cases does not mean that it does not hurt. A pulled muscle in the back can make standing, walking and other types of movement difficult.
Sciatica is another major cause of back pain, and it can be debilitating in more severe cases. In addition to affecting the lower back, people with this condition may have problems with their legs or feet feeling
numb or being difficult to move. Sciatica-related pain is felt on a continual basis, presents as a kind of tingling or burning and does not go away. It is generally contained to one side of the body and can be somewhat alleviated by moving around as opposed to staying still.
Degenerative disc disease in the lower back may affect people in their late teens, and it can cause large amounts of pain in the lower back. This disease generally involves a continual level of tolerable pain with occasional flare ups that may be severe and cause spasms. Luckily, this condition is almost always treated successfully.
Causes Of Lower Back Pain
Most of the time back pain is not linked to severe disease condition but rather due to mechanical reasons.
The back is a hugely complicated structure made of a number of bones, joints, muscles, and ligaments. Moreover, a healthy back needs to be supported by many other muscles like the pelvic and abdominal muscles.
Sprains and strains of the ligaments and muscles are the cause of back pain in most cases. People with a sedentary lifestyle, poor posture, obesity, and stress are at higher risk of back pain.
In a very small number of cases, back pain may occur due to a severe accident, injury, slipped disc, herniated disk, sciatic nerve pain, or even cancer.
Sometimes disease of internal organs may also cause backaches like kidney stones, kidney infections, blood clots, or osteoporosis.
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Remedies To Relieve Lower Back Pain Fast
by North Texas Medical Center | Jan 28, 2020 | Physical Therapy
We all want to know the best way to relieve lower back pain fast. At best, backache can be frustrating, perhaps draining. At its worst, this kind of discomfort can be utterly debilitating. If you have ever awakened with a terrible backache, you may have also learned how quickly such an ailment can derail your day, your week, or even several months or years.
Fortunately, there are remedies to combat that ache. From exercising to getting better sleep to reducing your stress levels, you can choose from a variety of strategies. The next time you have a backache , consider the following methods of back pain relief. Remember to discuss at-home back pain remedies with your doctor before you make use of them.
Ice Your Back Immediately After Exercise To Reduce Muscle Soreness
Muscle soreness and back pain can occur from extensive workouts, trying a new type of work out, or even from excessive walking. Soreness from these activities may start on the first day but typically continues to peak until the third day.4 This phenomenon is called delayed onset muscle soreness and can cause significant inflammation and pain in your back.
When you have back pain from exercise or exertion, use cold therapy immediately after the activity to reduce tissue damage, inflammation, and pain. After a 24-hour period, use heat therapy to encourage tissue healing.4
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Types Of Heat Therapy
Types of heat therapy include:
- applying safe heating devices to the area. Many heat products are available for purchase online, including electrical heating pads, hot water bottles, hot compress, or heat wrap.
- soaking the area in a hot bath, between 92 and 100 degrees Fahrenheit or 33 and 37.7 degrees Celsius
- using heated paraffin wax treatment
- medications such as rubs or patches containing capsicum, available for purchase online.
Heat packs can be dry or moist. Dry heat can be applied for up to 8 hours, while moist heat can be applied for 2 hours. Moist heat is believed to act more quickly.
Heat should normally be applied to the area for 20 minutes, up to three times a day, unless otherwise indicated.
Single-use wraps, dry wraps, and patches can sometimes be used continuously for up to 8 hours.
When Heat Can Help With Back Pain
The physiological effects of heat therapy include temporary pain relief, increased blood flow and metabolism, and improved elasticity of connective tissues. Application of heat helps with stretching of soft tissues around the spine and decreases stiffness. Flexibility is an important part of maintaining a healthy back.For that reason, if you find you have back pain after exercise, you might consider heat therapy before exercise and ice afterward. The heat will relieve muscle tightness, increase elasticity, and warm up muscles before use, and the ice afterward will reduce inflammation.
In any case, you should keep in mind that the pain relief from the application of heat or cold is most likely temporary and not intended as a long-term cure. In a 2010 study comparing heat and cold therapy for acute back pain, the researchers concluded that the choice of heat or cold therapy should be based on patient and practitioner preferences and availability.
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Tips For Heat And Lower Back Pain
For at home heat therapy, follow these general tips:
- Do not use for swelling or inflammation
- Temperature should be warm and not at risk of burning your skin. Use a soft towel or clothing as a barrier between your skin and heat source.
- Typically, heat is applied for longer sessions than ice.
- For minor low back aches, aim for 15 to 20 minutes.
- More severe or chronic back pain can be treated with heat anywhere from 30 minutes to 2+ hours
- Take 20 minute breaks in between sessions
Superficial Heat Or Cold For Low Back Pain
There is moderate evidence that heat wrap therapy reduces pain and disability for patients with back pain that lasts for less than three months. The relief has only been shown to occur for a short time and the effect is relatively small. The addition of exercise to heat wrap therapy appears to provide additional benefit. There is still not enough evidence about the effect of the application of cold for low-back pain of any duration, or for heat for back pain that lasts longer than three months.
Heat treatments include hot water bottles, soft heated packs filled with grain, poultices, hot towels, hot baths, saunas, steam, heat wraps, heat pads, electric heat pads and infra-red heat lamps. Cold treatments include ice, cold towels, cold gel packs, ice packs and ice massage.
Heat and cold are commonly utilised in the treatment of low-back pain by both health care professionals and people with low-back pain.
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Ice Therapy For Back Pains
Ice for impact injuries
There are certain types of impact injuries that may benefit from ice therapy. These may include:
- Sudden or high impact falls
- High impact injury during sports
- Sudden and sharp pain in the lower back
- Sprains in your lower back
For these types of lower back pain, ice therapy or an ice pack may help to soothe the muscles, reduce any localised inflammation and minimise the pain.
Pushing yourself too extensive workouts
Many people engage in rigorous exercise and dont realize that they could be injuring their back. If you havent warmed up or cooled down properly, then you could experience pain in the aftermath of your exercise. Not only immediately after your workout, but up to several days after.
This is called delayed onset muscle soreness and may lead to inflammation and pain in your body. Ice therapy immediately after intense exercise may aid in inflammation reduction and reduced tissue damage.
According to a study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research cold immediately after exercise or 24 hours later was superior to heat in reducing pain.
After a day or two, you could switch to heat therapy, as discussed in the following paragraph.
Saunas And Steam Rooms
You can use a dry sauna, infrared sauna, or steam room to improve circulation and alleviate stiffness.
The results of a 2018 review suggest that consistent use of a dry sauna is beneficial for people with rheumatoid arthritis as well as chronic pain syndrome. It may also help athletes to improve performance.
You can stay in a dry sauna or steam room for up to 15 minutes though you may want to begin with shorter sessions. Give yourself plenty of time to cool down in between sessions.
If youre pregnant, talk with your doctor before using a sauna or steam room.
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Heals Your Back After Walking Long Distances
If youâre a patient with back injury issues, you can get some pain by walking long distances. Ice will help you. Apply it after the walk: itâll help to heal you.Either if you walk a lot in a workout or just because it is part of a routine, the pain provoked by the activity will ease off with cold therapy.
A Simple Guide For When To Use Heat Or Cold Therapy To Treat Lower Back Pain
Many people worldwide suffer from lower back pain, regardless of age, activity level, diet, or overall health. It is a very common condition brought about by anything from the type of job you have to a car accident.
In addition to over-the-counter and prescription pain medication, heat and cold therapies are effective ways to reduce lower back pain. However, the effects of each treatment are different, and they work best in specific situations.
Heres how and when to use either hot or cold therapy for your lower back pain.
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Heat Or Ice For Upper Back Pain
Both ice and heat can help upper back pain, but, like lower back pain, which to use depends on the timing and probably causes of your pain. Healthline suggests that you, use a cold pack and anti-inflammatory pain relief for the first three days after the pain starts. After that, alternate applying heat and cold to your injury.
Using Heat To Relieve Lower Back Pain
Using a heating pad is a great way to get relief when people are experiencing pain in the low back region. It is effective because heat makes the blood vessels wider, and this helps blood flow in addition to helping
the muscles relax. With more blood moving into the area, the back gets an increased supply of nutrients, and harmful elements are removed effectively.
However, people should keep in mind that just using heat is often a temporary measure. Individuals who are experiencing pain on a regular basis should definitely see a doctor and investigate more permanent solutions to help with their back issues.
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Tips To Combine Heat And Cold Therapy In Your Daily Routine
Here are a few tips to help you incorporate the use of heat and/or cold therapy in your everyday activities:
- Keep a heat patch near your beduse it first thing in the morning to warm up your muscles if you wake up with an achy or stiff back
- Apply a cold patch before bed if you have exercised or exerted your back
- Use heat therapy before sleeping and after waking up if you have chronic back pain
- Carry a couple of self-activating heat patches and ice packs in your bag or car to use while driving or at work
You are more likely to benefit from heat and cold therapy when you make these treatments a part of your daily routine.
Should You Use Ice Or Heat After A Chiropractic Adjustment
This is dependent on the presenting problem. If the inflammation is from a joint in the spine or disk ice would be the way to go. If the presenting problem is from muscle spasm, heat would be beneficial. Heat would not be recommended directly after a massage or deep tissue work though. If you are unsure always go for ice
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How To Loosen Tight Lower Back Muscles Using Heat Therapy
Should You Use Dry Heat Or Moist Heat For Muscle Pain In Your Back
The answer to this question really comes down to your preference and whats most convenient. Dry heat tend to draw moisture out of the skin, leaving it dehydrated. But some prefer the sensation of dry heat and it is often the easier version to apply.
Moist heat, such as a hot bath, steamed towel or moist heating packs, can help heat to penetrate into muscles, bringing better results for some. But this can also be less convenient to apply and some do not like the mix of moisture and heat.
You may need to experiment to see what works best for relieving your back pain.
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