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Hot or Cold Therapy? Which is best?
Have you ever wondered if you should ice an injury or use a heat pack instead? Knowing whether to apply heat or ice to injuries can be tricky.
As a general rule of thumb, cold therapy is ideal for tackling acute inflammation and heat therapy is recommended for promoting healing.
Both hot and cold therapy is a cost-effective and efficient solution that can help reduce inflammation, relieve pain and promote healing, all from the comfort of your own home.
Cold therapy is especially beneficial for reducing inflammation and pain in the initial, acute stages of an injury as it constricts the blood vessels. Some studies have suggested using intermittent cold therapy (5 minutes of ice, 20 minutes of no ice) to reduce pain and inflammation but avoid over-icing the area and never use ice directly on the skin.
Heat therapy is beneficial to injuries as it actually promotes inflammation – it increases circulation by dilating the blood vessels, bringing more blood, that carries oxygen and nutrients to aid with healing. Heat therapy tends to be best for relaxing tight muscles and treating more chronic conditions like osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis.
As you can see both ice and heat help in terms of pain relief and healing and in some cases both can be used.
Usually, when using both hot and cold therapy for an injury the rule is to apply ice first to reduce swelling. Once the initial swelling goes down heat can provide relief and promotes blood flow for your body to heal. The injuries and conditions that could use the rule of ice first, heat later…
- Pulled Muscles
- Shoulder pain
- Knee pain
- Back pain
- Neck Pain
- Muscle soreness
For any further help and advice give us a call and one of our team will be able to help.
