How Ice Works To Relieve Pain And Reduce Inflammation
Ice narrows the blood vessel lumen , which limits blood flow to your soft tissues.
The control of blood flow helps in pain control by reducing the flow of irritating chemicals that can flood the injury site. While these chemicals are a natural and useful response to inflammation, keeping them in check helps control pain.
Reduced blood flow also helps control excessive swelling.
Heat Therapy Stimulates Blood Flow
Unlike cold therapy, heat therapy speeds up the blood flow and can be a gentle suggestion to your body to begin the healing process. You might find that heat therapy helps sooth sore muscles and relax muscle spasms especially with an older injury.
Using heat therapy reduces the pain by not only relaxing your muscles, but also by increasing the flow of lactic acid. This fluid often slows down in areas with decreased blood flow, but its removal is necessary for improving range of motion and decreasing pain. Paired with hydration, heat therapy can help you heal from pain from an ongoing injury or to relax sore muscles and stiffness from the body.
If the injury causing pain is severe, be sure to talk to your orthopaedic specialist to ensure that a more active approach to your pain management isnt necessary.
When To Use Caution
Paraffin wax treatments supply moist heat but overheating can cause burns.
Use caution on areas with decreased sensation if you have neuropathy or Raynauds syndrome. Extreme temperatures can damage skin.
Wonder if its safe to use ice when youre burning up with fever? Theres nothing wrong with using cold to bring down a fever, says Dr. Kriegler.
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Heat Or Ice For Lower Back Pain Which Is Best
If youve got lower back pain, friends and family have probably given you plenty of advice. Some people will tell you to ice it, while others will say to apply heat. The answer to the question of which is best often depends on the type of pain you are experiencing and who you ask.
A survey of physical therapists in 2015 found that among 327 physical therapists participating in the study, the percentage of those using heat or ice for pain ranged from 47.7 percent to 66.8 percent. The range varied, depending on whether the PTs were treating the patients musculoskeletal pain in an inpatient or outpatient setting. Even so, there is only limited research evaluating the effectiveness of these treatments.
The therapists were also asked about which treatment to recommend for acute back pain that occurs after an injury, muscle strain, or overexertion. While there is no consensus, in general, experts say to apply cold therapy in the first day or so after the injury. After the swelling and inflammation have diminished, switching to heat therapy may be helpful.
What’s Better: Ice Or Heat For Lower Back Pain
Lower back pain is a common condition. In fact, you are likely to experience it at some point in your life. While lower back pain can be a nuisance to your everyday life, conservative treatments are usually enough to treat it successfully. Two of these treatments are hot and cold therapy. Not only are both options incredibly convenient, they’re affordable as well.
If you’re living with lower back pain, you may be wondering which one is better. The answer is, “It depends on the timing of your back pain as well as its type.” Keep reading to learn more.
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Treating Pain With Heat And Cold
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Overview
We treat everything from arthritis to pulled muscles to inflammation with ice packs or heating pads. Treating pain with hot and cold can be extremely effective for a number of different conditions and injuries, and easily affordable. The tricky part is knowing what situations calls for hot, and which calls for cold. Sometimes a single treatment will even include both.
As a general rule of thumb, use ice for acute injuries or pain, along with inflammation and swelling. Use heat for muscle pain or stiffness.
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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Heat Or Ice Therapies Are Convenient Economic Ways To Manage At
Heat and ice therapy both can provide significant relief from sciatica pain and help improve mobility and range of motion. Both therapies are free from side-effect and can be used conveniently at home to manage your sciatica.
Have questions about how to at-home manage your sciatica pain? Reach out to Cianci Chiropractic for your consultation today!
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What About Medicated Cold Patch Or Heat Patch For Lower Back Pain
According to a Japanese specialist, in reference to Japan’s “2012 Clinical Practice Guidelines for Low Back Pain”, you may use either a heat or cold patch for low back pain.
This is how.
Medicated heat patches contain active ingredients such as capsaicin. Capsaicin is a compound that is responsible for the hotness of hot peppers.
On the contrary, cold patches contain active ingredients such as menthol. This gives the cool feeling to relieve pain.
That is, these patches do not literally warm up or cool the body in the first place. They give the sensation of “feeling” cool or warm alongside with other analgesic or anti-inflammatory ingredients to relieve the pain.
You can use either a cold patch or a heat patch depending on what feels more comfortable for you.
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How To Use Heat Effectively
Only use heat therapy once the swelling has gone down and the pain has ceased. Make sure to use a moderate heat level. It shouldnt cause you any discomfort or make you sweat while using it.
As a rule of thumb, dont use heat after an activity or if theres swelling.
If you want to use heat therapy for chronic injuries from overuse, then use a moderate heat setting and be careful when applying heat. Pay attention to how your body responds to heat therapy.
You shouldnt continue to use heat therapy if your pain gets worse. While you can use heat therapy for a longer duration, you shouldnt fall asleep on a heating pad or when using the heat lamp.
The exposure to the heat can lead to minor burns and dry, irritated skin.
Its important to note that you should speak to your doctor before using heat therapy with the following conditions:
- Diabetes
Heating Pads And Cold Packs Are Two Of The Easiest
Applying heat can relieve pain by relaxing the muscles, producing a sedative effect, and decreasing muscle tension. Ice can temporarily relieve pain almost any time.
When it comes to chronic pain, many of us reach for heat or ice therapy, thinking one or the other will ease our symptoms. Its easy to grab the heating pad or the ice pack, but both target symptoms, not underlying causes or long-term cures, and that can be a problem. That said, while youre waiting to get in to see your doctor you can find temporary relief from heat or ice.
Well help you understand heat or ice therapy in detail, but heres a great starting-point hint: Use ice if pain limits your motion, and use heat if stiffness limits your motion.
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How Is Back Pain Diagnosed
Your health professional will first assess your back pain. They may ask questions including:
- When did your back pain begin?
- What activities were you doing differently to normal before your back pain started?
- How would you describe the pain? Is there tingling or numbness?
- What makes the pain better or worse?
If your pain doesnt settle after a few weeks or starts getting worse, ask your doctor or other health care professional about other management options. You may be referred for tests if there is reason to suspect a more serious cause for your back pain.
In most situations, imaging such as X-ray, CT or MRI scans are not helpful unless there is an obvious injury or strain.
Unnecessary tests can be expensive, and many investigations will show changes in your spine that reflect the normal passage of time, rather than damage to your spine.
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.
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Supplements And Herbal Therapies
Looking for a natural way to manage your back pain? You might consider supplements or herbal therapies. Here’s what Grossman advices for her patients:
When considering supplements and herbal therapies, always talk to your doctor first about potential risks and side effects, interactions with other medications, and which therapies may benefit you.
Use Cold First And Then Apply Heat For Acute Back Pain
When your back pain is acute and/or occurs due to a direct injury, use cold therapy first.2 Lowering the body temperature will help constrict the blood vessels, reduce swelling, decrease inflammation, and cause a numbing effect.1,3
See Ice Packs for Back Pain Relief
Once the inflammation has subsided, use heat therapy. When you apply heat, it improves the flexibility of soft tissues, movement of muscles, and overall functioning of the back. The local warmth stimulates blood circulation in your lower back, which in turn brings healing nutrients to the injured tissues.
It is also advised to continue using heat therapy intermittently for several hours or days in order to improve tissue healing and prevent recurrence of pain.2
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A Variety Of Methods Encompass Warm Therapy Including:
The different types of heat therapies can be divided into two categories: moist and dry heat.
Moist heat therapies include:
- Taking a warm bath or shower at a temperature of 92 to 100 degrees
- Sauna
- Heating pads
You should use dry heat therapies to treat localized injuries.
If youre experiencing widespread aches and pains, or you want the heat to penetrate deeper into your muscles, then use moist heat.
How To Make A Homemade Heating Pad
If you dont have a heating pad, you can make your own using items already in your house.
For this to work, you need an old cotton sock, regular rice, and a sewing machine, or a needle and thread.
Fill the old sock with rice, leaving just enough space at the top of the sock to sew the ends together. Next, put the sock in the microwave for about 3 to 5 minutes.
Once the microwave stops, carefully remove the sock and apply it to your back. If the sock is too hot, let it cool or wrap it in a cloth before using.
You can also use the rice sock as a cold pack. Just put it in the freezer before applying to acute injuries.
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When To Use Cold Therapy For Back Pain
- Acute back injury: Ice for back pain can be an effective pain reliever if you are experiencing an acute injury. For example, maybe you strained the muscles of your lower back by lifting something too heavy. The cold from the ice can help to reduce inflammation in the affected area. If you want to address an acute injury, its best to apply cold therapy within two days of the injury.
- Soreness from exercise: Exercise can help alleviate and even prevent recurrent back pain. Depending on the types of exercise you are doing and the intensity, you might feel sore after a workout. The cold can help ease the strain and tension in your muscles.
- Sciatica: Sciatica is the name for pain in the sciatic nerve, which begins in the lower back and travels down through the buttocks and the legs. If you are having a sciatica flare-up, immediate application of cold therapy can help to reduce the pain and inflammation. Cold therapy may also help reduce the muscle spasms associated with sciatica.
Lower Back Painshould You Use Ice Or Heat
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide are plagued by lower back pain . About 80% of people experience it at some point in their lives, and is very common in the aging population.
There are more than 30 kinds of low back pain. In fact, there’s a type of back pain caused by a rupture of blood vessel. This can be very dangerous and may lead to sudden death.
In this article, we’ll introduce to you some various measures that you can apply to deal with different types of low back pain.
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What Is Heat Therapy
The best way to remember what heat therapy does is to recognize its purpose is to soothe the pain in a particular area or region of the body. Heat therapy works by increasing the temperature around an area of your body that is hurting such as a muscle. When your bodys temperature rises, it improves blood flow and circulation, so when you increase the temperature in a specific area of the body, its going to increase the circulation in that particular area. When you have pain coming from one specific muscle or set of muscles increasing circulation helps to relax the muscle, ultimately easing pain and discomfort. Since it improves blood flow and circulation, it can be an effective way to heal damaged tissues, as well.
At this point, its important to mention one major thing: when we say heat therapy, were not talking about putting anything really hot against your skin. Were talking a steady, warm heat. Anything that is going to burn you or cause even greater pain or discomfort is just too hot and should never be used for heat therapy.
Heat therapy can either be administered through dry heat or moist heat, but one isnt necessarily better than the other. It comes down to your preference try both to see which one brings you the most relief. Dry heat is the kind of heat youll get from heating pads, hot water bottles, heat patches and wraps or saunas. On the other hand, moist heat is the kind of heat youd obtain through a hot bath or a steam towel.
When To Use Ice For Lower Back Pain
In most instances, you should use ice on your back for the first 24 to 72 hours following an injury. Cold therapy helps minimize swelling and inflammation. This, in turn, eases your pain. Cold therapy may also decrease tissue damage.
Whether you use an ice pack, a frozen towel or even a bag of frozen vegetables, place a cloth between your skin and the source of cold to prevent ice burn. Cold therapy should be applied for no more than 20 minutes at a time, but it can safely be applied up to 10 times in a 24-hour period.
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How Does An Ice Pack Help
So what happens when you apply an ice pack to the back or knee? The cold temperatures restrict blood flow to your muscles, which helps to reduce bruising, swelling and pain.
Once you remove the ice pack, your muscles will warm and blood vessels expand, ushering in a flood of new blood, helping to clear debris left by injury and accelerating the healing process.
Cold therapy is a great option for fresh injuries like a pulled, sprained or strained back muscle or a new case of IT band syndrome.
When Cold Can Help With Back Pain Due To Inflammation
Inflammation and swelling is part of the bodys natural response to injury, but once the threat has been neutralized and healing is underway, inflammation and swelling can actually increase pain. In these cases, ice acts to blunt the inflammatory response, which helps reduce swelling and calms the nerves around the injury site. Once the swelling has gone down, switching to heat therapy will likely be more helpful.
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What Is Ice Useful For
Cold treatment can help in cases of:
- osteoarthritis
- strains
- tendinitis, or irritation in the tendons following activity
A cold mask or wrap around the forehead may help reduce the pain of a migraine.
For osteoarthritis, patients are advised to use an ice massage or apply a cold pad 10 minutes on and 10 minutes off.
Is Ice Or Heat Better For Back Pain
Back pain is a prevalent experience for most people at some point in their adult lives. Applying heat or ice is one of the tried-and-true methods of at-home treatment for back pain, but how do you know which method to use and when? Get to know how to use ice or heat for back pain and when to use both.
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