Ice Conventional wisdom and googling says this: Cold therapy reduces blood flow to the area, which can decrease swelling and inflammation. This can be especially soothing if you have an acute injury — say, your joints hurt worse than usual because you were gardening all weekend.
Heat therapy increases blood flow to the area, which helps blood vessels dilate, drawing in more oxygen and nutrients. This can be especially soothing for stiff joints, especially for people who experience morning stiffness because of arthritis. Using Ice and Cold Therapy for Joint Pain When to Use Ice for Joint Pain For the most part, ice is appropriate to use within 48 hours of an acute injury or a flare-up of joint pain that comes with inflammation, experts explain.
How to Use Ice for Joint Pain The rule of thumb for icing down an inflamed area is up to 10 minutes on, followed by about 10 minutes off, several times if needed. When to Use Heat for Joint Pain Heat tends to be more beneficial for the types of everyday joint pain, such as stiffness, that people with arthritis experience. Safety with Heat Therapy Check your skin after five minutes to make sure there are no signs of burns and check again a few times while using heat, Dr.
Track Your Symptoms with ArthritisPower. Was This Helpful? Share Facebook Twitter Email. Rheumatoid Arthritis Diet Patient Stories. Subscribe to CreakyJoints for more related content. About CreakyJoints CreakyJoints is a digital community for millions of arthritis patients and caregivers worldwide who seek education, support, advocacy, and patient-centered research.
Our Resources ghlf. Stay Connected. The contents of this website are for informational purposes only and do not constitute medical advice.
Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. All rights reserved. Part of the Global Healthy Living Foundation, a c 3 non-profit organization. Reservados todos los derechos. Login to comment on posts, connect with other members, access special offers and view exclusive content.
Moist heat or heat pads work best when used for 15 minutes on at a time and at least 30 minutes off. Do not apply ice or heat to large areas of the body if only one joint or body part is the focus. As an example, a full-body ice bath should not be used to treat an ankle sprain. The body cannot sustain the vasodilation, or decrease of blood flow, to such a large area. This type of treatment will not help the injured body part, so do not waste your time in a really cold bath. As a more advanced treatment, use ice AND heat.
To achieve therapeutic results, you must do this in a very specific way. The key is to ice for 20 minutes, causing the vessels to narrow, and then heat for 15 minutes, causing the vessels to dilate.
This acts as a pumping mechanism to the inflammation, pushing it away from the injured area. By ending on ice, the vessels will be narrowed and will help keep inflammation from re-entering the area. Heat and ice can be used on all injuries or sore body parts at any time and can provide significant pain relief. Ice is definitely not as comfortable as heat, and ice will sometimes ache or burn for the first five to seven minutes of the minute session.
If used appropriately, it can help tremendously with most aches and pains. Ice vs. November 04, To ease that pain, is it better to use ice or heat? What is Inflammation?
Does heat make inflammation worse? About Applying Heat Heat does have its role. Rules to Remember: If an injury has occurred to any body part within three days, ice is preferred -- 20 minutes on and 30 to 40 minutes off. Pain to the back, neck and large muscle groups like quads, hamstrings and calves will respond well to heat after three days of injury. Use ice for pain in joints such as knees, elbows and shoulders. Keep It Local Do not apply ice or heat to large areas of the body if only one joint or body part is the focus.
You might want to try alternating between heat and ice on the knee muscles if your main symptom is muscle pain. If you applied ice alone to your knee muscles, you might get some effective pain relief, but I found that my clients complained of worsening stiffness when they treat their knee muscles with just ice.
For this reason, I would suggest you try for the best of both worlds and get the pain relieving effects of ice AND the mobility improvement that heat brings. The other advantage of trying both is that you will get the chance to feel which one works best for YOU! This would encourage better mobility for the knee joint and let you walk further and stand more easily. Heat, heat and more heat. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.
I Accept Show Purposes. Table of Contents View All. Table of Contents. Causes of Knee Pain. Using Ice. Using Heat. Using Both Heat and Ice In some situations, applying both ice and heat to your joint may be helpful. Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign Up. What are your concerns? Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Related Articles. Causes of Knee Pain and Treatment Options. How to Reduce Fluid on the Knee. How Knee Pain Is Treated. Meniscus vs. Cartilage Tear of the Knee. Side Knee Pain: Causes and Treatment.
0コメント