Now that's just COLD!

Happy Wednesday!

Whenever someone comes into the office with an injury or pain, I ask if they have already been using any ice or heat on the area. The most common response is "I haven't used anything because I didn't know which was better." The simple answer to this is that if you are in doubt, always use cold. Most injuries will have some type of swelling and cold therapy is the best to help decrease the inflammation. Yes, heat does feel better. However, heat over a specific area brings blood to the area, so although it can help to relax the muscles, it can actually create more swelling. On the other hand, using general heat with a hot shower, bath or hot tub is great because it heats and relaxes the whole body and doesn't just bring attention to a specific area.

You might have heard that cold is good for acute (within the first 72 hours) injuries and heat is good for chronic (after 72 hours) injuries. Although this can be helpful, I still believe and have seen the best results are by using cold on the area regardless of how long it has been since the injury. The only time I really ever recommend heat is with arthritic conditions or really long-term, chronic conditions.

The best way to use cold therapy is to put cold on the injured area for 15-20 minutes and then take it off for 15-20 minutes and then repeat. Especially with a new injury, this should be done several times throughout the day and most importantly a few times before going to bed. In general, swelling in our body gets worse throughout the day, so you want to make sure you calm it down before you go to sleep with it. By alternating the cold and no cold, you are taking the swelling away with the cold and bringing new blood to the area when taking the cold away. Some people alternate cold and heat, which is fine, but is just more work and gets similar results as just alternating the cold with no cold. The cold could be a baggie with a few ice cubes and some cold tap water, a reusable ice pack, or even a bag of frozen vegetables (you can make some good vegetable soup after using it ;). All should be wrapped in a paper towel. The goal isn't to FREEZE the area, just to cool it down and numb it a little.

So, hopefully you don't get hurt, but if something does happen to you or someone else, remember that if you are in doubt, use cold!

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

Live Well.