ONE: USE OF COLD OR ICE THERAPY FOR PAIN RELIEF

Cold packs or ice baths are generally used in acute types of injuries, meaning fresh injuries such as turning an ankle, straining a joint, etc. The natural reaction of the body to an injury is inflammation or swelling of an overstressed injured tissue to protect the joint after injury. Cold will tend to dissipate any type of swelling and numb the pain receptor sites in the injured area.

Ice is used on acute injuries when a joint, muscle, or ligament has been overstrained and stretched such as from trauma. Immediately, the best treatment is to apply ice to the region of injury for a period of 12-15 minutes. Research is very explicit on showing that there are therapeutic benefits in using this time frame. Anything more than that is counterproductive to stimulating the body to promote healing. The way ice pack therapy works is it gives a numbing effect to the pain receptors and decreases the pain level. It also restricts the blood vessels and restricts the blood flow and stops the bleeding and swelling in the tissues of irritation. This will relieve pain and provide the healing process to begin. As a side note, pressure is also great at this point in an injury as well to keep the swelling at bay.

THE TYPE OF ICE PAIN THERAPY AVAILABLE

Ice therapy should always be applied locally to the area of injury. It should not last more than 12-15 minutes at any given time frame. Ice can be applied in the form of an ice pack, freezing a towel in a freezer that's wet, putting snow in a zip lock bag (if living in the northern climate) or using frozen vegetables in the freezer

TWO: USE OF HEAT

Generally speaking heat is used on more chronic types of injuries where a person has been living with a nagging reoccurring pain, stiffness or soreness for over a significant period of time. Heat will bring blood to the area and relax the muscles if it is an ongoing type injury. But, as a general rule of thumb, a person can never go wrong applying ice to an injury or pain first. The primary goal is to dissipate any kind of swelling, as well as numb the pain receptors of an acute traumatic injury that gives you pain relief and heat may bring more blood supply to the area which may cause more swelling. Should a person have reoccurring symptoms and pain, it is best to take the advice of a health care practitioner as ice and heat treatment are not a substitute for a medical evaluation with proper extensive medical treatment.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF HEAT THERAPY

Localized heat can be applied many different ways. They are applied to the topical surface of the skin such as hot packs, wash cloth in a microwave while it's wet and heating up to where it's warm, electric heating pad, moist heat from a hot water bottle, hot wraps that are wrapped around the body, hot baths, saunas, steam rooms, hot showers. While doing these types of hot treatments, it is important number first to not burn yourself. Heat applied directly to the surface of the skin can cause burning and blistering and be quite unpleasant. Secondly, it is important to drinking plenty of fluids to rehydrate your tissues. Heat will tend to dehydrate and dry moisture out of the tissues. It is important when injured or in pain to drink plenty of water to rehydrate.

Other ways of applying heat may be with equipment like lasers and ultrasound that go deeper into the skin.

HOW DOES CHIROPRACTIC FIT INTO TREATMENT OF INJURIES

When you have an injured joint, whether it is acute or long standing, there are both muscles and bones involved. If a joint is injured the biomechanics (or how the joint moves) is usually compromised. If the muscles are involved they pull and tug on the bones in the area, making the joint move in a different way and can cause pressure on the nerves and dysfunctional movement of the body. Having nerve pressure also affects the nerves that communicate the healing of the area (the brain communicates that way to heal the joint). A Chiropractor, and especially your Coon Rapids MN Chiropractor, Dr Ruf can assess the joints and see if indeed there is pressure and get the joints working and the nerves to settle down and start the healing process faster and become more efficient.

I hope this discussion has been helpful in defining the benefits, whether pro or con, when to use hot and cold therapy. Both have their specific purpose and are quite beneficial when used appropriately. I hope this information will give you some ideas. It is not a substitute for proper Chiropractic evaluation or treatment of a health condition. If you feel you need more information or are interested in getting your joints checked out, please feel free to contact our office, Caring Chiropractic Center in Coon Rapids MN.