Cold/heat Therapy Best Practices
Cold and heat therapy can be effective, but only if you use it properly. How you use it will depend on the type of back pain that youre experiencing.
If you have acute pain, then youll use both heat and cold therapy. You should begin with cold therapy, which youll place on the affected area for 15 minutes. After that time is up, you should switch to heat therapy.
If your back pain is chronic , then youll want to use heat therapy only. To get the best results, your pack should be warm and placed for a longer period of time on your back.
If you find that you have back pain after youve engaged in exercise, then be sure to have an ice pack at home. If you place the ice on your back immediately after exercise, youll find that your symptoms are much improved.
Heat Therapy For Back Pain
Heat therapy helps to promote blood circulation and tissue healing, as well as working to activate and keep muscles moving. After a day or two of using an ice pack, you could switch to use a heat pack.
Also, heat packs may help you first thing in the morning. If you wake up with a stiff or achy back, a heat pack may help warm up your mobiles and increase mobility.
Alternating Heat And Ice Therapy For Back Pain
In some cases, both ice and heat therapy are necessary to provide back pain relief. By alternating ice compress and warm compress, you can increase the likelihood of relieving your back pain by taking advantage of the benefits of the hot and cold application.
To begin alternating ice and heat therapy, we recommend using ice before the heat packs. Ice therapy is the best applied during the first stage of injury since it temporarily numbs and shocks the muscles attention while the heat promotes relaxation immediately after.
Recommended Reading: Who To Consult For Lower Back Pain
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
Ice To Bring Lower Back Pain Relief
Ice is the preferred treatment for acute injury to help with lower back pain relief.
You probably have what you need around the house to self-treat. A plastic bag with ice and some water or even a bag of frozen peas or corn can do the trick .
You want to do this with some precautions.
Just remember C.B.A.N. When you use the cold treatment it should feel Cold. Then is will begin to feel like a Burn. Then the cold will Ache. Just when the area goes Numb, you should get more relief and its time to stop the ice treatment.
Wait for the area to thaw for the remainder of the hour and repeat.
Recommended Reading: How To Relieve Muscle Spasms In Lower Back
Dont Let Back Pain Hold You Back Find Out What To Use To Loosen Stiff Muscles At Home
There are many reasons hot and cold therapy are go-to methods to treat just about any form of soreness or injury to your body. They are easy, safe, inexpensive and environmentally-friendly ways of relieving pain that can be done from the comfort of your home. They also come without any of the side effects or risks that come with many other treatment options.
That said, cold and heat therapy also are not as potent as many other methods. And it can be tough to determine whether you should use heat or ice for back pain.
But dont fretthis post walks you through that decision-making process, helping you to determine what is good for your back pain ice or heat.
Ice Packs And Sciatica: Can It Help
Ice or cold therapy is recommended when your sciatica is acute or flares up. It helps by:
- As opposed to taking oral pain-relieving medications which have a body-wide effect, an ice pack can act locally.
- It decreases inflammation. Lowering the tissue temperature which can then decrease tissue metabolism and oxygen intake, reducing the overall inflammatory process.
- Numbs the area. The reduction in tissue temperature causes a numbing effect due to the constriction of blood vessels and a decrease in blood flow.
Recommended Reading: How To Relieve Lower Back And Buttock Pain
Can You Leave Ice On Your Back Too Long
About Applying Ice Ice constricts, or narrows, blood vessels. Constricting blood vessels inhibits the body from allowing inflammation in the iced area. Heat dilates, or widens blood vessels, allowing more inflammation to flow to an injured or painful area.
Put at least a thin towel between the ice and skin to avoid burned skin. Greater than 20 minutes of icing can cause reactive vasodilation, or widening, of the vessels as the body tries to make sure the tissues get the blood supply they need. Studies have also shown 30 to 40 minutes in between icing sessions are needed to counter this reaction.
The suggested time for icing is 20 minutes on and at least 30 minutes off. Although many articles and studies may say that heat should be used for injuries and pain that have lingered for longer than six weeks, this is not necessarily the case. For conditions such as chronic tendonitis and osteoarthritis, the body thinks that it can heal the worn or injured area.
When To Alternate Between Ice And Heat For Back Pain
Some back pain is caused by a variety of factors, including both muscles and the spine itself. This means that you may want to try both ice and heat for your back pain. The University of Michigan says, You may also want to try switching between heat and cold. Use heat for 15 to 20 minutes, then a few hours later use ice for 10 to 15 minutes.
Dr. Susan Baker explains this a bit further: In the case of icing and heating back muscles its important to note that although a hot shower might feel good, the heat might actually be increasing inflammation by opening up blood vessels. Icing and heating in combination breaks the cycles in which muscle spasms cause pain.
With these generalities in mind, lets examine some of the most common back pain causes and discuss whether heat or ice is preferable.
Recommended Reading: Does Sleep Number Bed Help Back Pain
Why Should I Buy A Best Ice Pack For Lower Back
You can tell if you need or want a best ice pack for lower back by looking at your existing inventory. You probably dont need it and should reconsider buying it. If you can’t bear to go with the old one, you could always sell it and put the money toward the purchase of a replacement.Finishing your project in this manner is a lot of fun and simple to do.
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
Don’t Miss: How To Get Rid Of Lower Back Hip Pain
Is Heat Or Ice Better For Sciatica
Inflammation can be reduced by using cold packs first. Apply ice packs to the painful areas several times per day for about 20 minutes. To achieve the desired heat, use a heat lamp or heating pad at the lowest setting for two or three days. It may be beneficial to alternate warm and cold packs.
When the sacrum or the back of your lower back becomes compressed, your nerve roots become compressed, resulting in sciatica. When the sciatic nerve comes into contact with the intervertebral bone or disc, its topmost portion becomes compressed. You can effectively treat sciatica pain by using ice, which has the effect of significantly reducing pain and reducing nerve conduction on your skin. Ice treatment can help to reduce inflammation by lowering the temperature of the tissues in the affected area and decreasing the amount of oxygen they receive. When your pain is severe and fresh, the last thing you should do is use the heating pad. It is possible to cause sciatica to flare up if you apply heat at the wrong time. Cold therapy is the most commonly used treatment for sciatica-related pains. In order to numb and control pain, you should apply pressure to your lower back instead of your calf or thighs. It is recommended that you use a cold pack on your hip and hip areas three to four times per day.
Whats New In This Article
Five updates have been logged for this article since publication . All PainScience.com updates are logged to show a long term commitment to quality, accuracy, and currency. moreLike good footnotes, update logging sets PainScience.com apart from most other health websites and blogs. Its fine print, but important fine print, in the same spirit of transparency as the editing history available for Wikipedia pages.I log any change to articles that might be of interest to a keen reader. Complete update logging started in 2016. Prior to that, I only logged major updates for the most popular and controversial articles.See the Whats New? page for updates to all recent site updates.
2018 Added article summary.
2017 Edited. Just boring maintenance, but quite thorough, and necessary after the rewrite a few weeks ago.
2017 Rewritten. I came close to just tossing this article in the digital trash, but decided it could be saved by a rewrite fairly easily. In a rare move towards brevity, it is now much shorter! The role of trigger points have been demoted to a minor subtopic . Sensitization and the mind game in low back pain are now the focus.
2017 Editing and modernization, mainly modernizing my explanation for the role of trigger points in back pain.
2016 Light editing, miscellaneous clarifications and modernization, especially an introduction to the idea of sensitization.
2005 Publication.
Don’t Miss: What’s Good For Upper Back Pain
Balancing Your Activity With Rest
Bed rest is a common initial prescription for lower back pain in some cases. It is especially true if your pain comes from an injury or re-injury. In fact, resting while applying ice packs is a time-honored way of reducing swelling in the first day or two. However, for chronic lower back pain, moving around is a much better medicine than lying around. Physical activity releases your natural endorphins, which have both mood-lifting and pain-killing properties.
Of course, it is important not to overdo your workouts before consulting with your physical therapist. Keep it simple by taking a light walk or getting some household chores done, in order to limber up your back and release those helpful endorphins. If a brace helps in relieving your pain, wear it to support your lower back as you move.
Physical therapy is an important exercise option. It delivers both the benefit of exercise and the watchful eye of a professional to make sure you are using proper technique and remaining sage. Your physical therapist can warn you about moves that risk re-injury and will work with you on both flexibility and strengthening moves. These exercises are meant to build up the muscles that support your spine, in order to ease pain on your lower back. They also help provide greater range-of-motion as you work through that back stiffness.
When To Use Heat Vs When To Use Ice For Lower Back Pain
Both heat and cold therapy are beneficial and can provide effective relief from lower back pain. If you are like many people, though, you might not know when to use heat vs. when to use ice for lower back pain to achieve the maximum benefit. If you are suffering from lower back pain, read on to discover whether you should be using heat or ice.
Read Also: How To Fix Degenerative Disc In Lower Back
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.
Recommended Reading: Does Tylenol Help With Back Pain
So What Is The Story With Necks
The information we gave explaining what happens to the back when it is iced holds true with necks as well. However, the argument against icing the neck is not as strong as it is with the back, the word never does not apply here.
Just like back pain, the majority of neck pain is not considered inflammatory or injurious in nature. This is the criterion for icing an injury. Just like backs, the neck is easily irritated with cold. Have you ever been hit in the back of the neck with a snow ball? The cold hurts worse than the snow ball impact!
The most common problem people face with their neck is the crick in the neck, which is enough to make you slightly hostile. This is usually brought on by chilly air hitting the neck at night, and not by the way you slept on your pillow.
Even if we break down all of the specifics, it is better to learn by experience. Take a small piece of ice from the freezer and place it on your neck for a few seconds. You will see quickly that your neck does not like it at all.
Unfortunately, no matter what you do, the neck is more fragile than the back. Because the brain knowns this, it pays more attention to the back than it does the neck, and protects it a lot more. Necks are susceptible to being injured a lot more easily, especially with a condition known as whiplash which is way more common than straining muscles in your lower back.
Recommended Reading: Which Beds Are Best For Back Pain
Recommended Reading: Which Doctor Should I See For Back Pain
When To Use Both Heat & Ice Called: Contrast Therapy
You can use ice and heat separately, or in some cases, together, which is known as contrast therapy. The key to contrast therapy is to start with heat and finish with ice. This has to do with the dilation and constriction of blood flow to the injured area.
You want to start with dilating the blood vessels with heat, followed by constriction of blood vessels with the ice. This works to create a pumping effect. which promotes healing of the area. Contrast therapy is generally used after the first 72 hours, before you start to apply heat on its own.
Coldest Gel Ice Pack Flexible Compress With Straps Provides Alleviate Joint And Muscle Pain Flexible Therapy Injuries Shoulder Back Knee Neck
Check Latest Price
| Lowest Price |
Product Details
The Coldest Water Ice Pack, was initially built for Professional Athletes in high performing sports. Dont settle for a less quality gel pack. Comes with a Velcro strap wide and long enough to comfortably and securely wrap around your waist, or any body part.
Built to stay cold while molding to your body. Apply pack for up to 20 minutes max at a time. Ankle Sprains, Back Pain, Muscle pains, stomach aches, stiff neck, Calves, Quads, Sports injuries. Cold therapy is recommended for the first 48 hours following the injury.
Store the gel pack in the freezer for at least 2 hours.
| Lowest Price |
Product Details
Comfortable Pain Relief These adjustable hot and cold packs offer therapeutic relief for myofascial, soft tissue soreness as well as stiff joints and aching muscles. Hot or Cold Compress Trek Proof medical-grade gel packs are safe for the microwave and freezer to easily rotate between icing and heating injuries.
Improved Recovery Along with general aches and pains, our therapy pads can help reduce headaches, swelling and fevers as well as relieve menstrual cramps and sinusitis. Dual Pack Every order comes complete with two body-forming ice packs so you can keep one in the freezer and one bag with your first aid kit ready to be heated up.
Includes Comfort Strap Trek Proof soothing therapy wraps come with an adjustable, one-size-fits-all strap thats great for men and women.
| Lowest Price |
Product Details
| Lowest Price |
Read Also: Does Epsom Salt Help Back Pain
