Ice VS. Heat: What to Use and When
Life is full of bumps and bruises. And if you’ve found yourself injured, there seems to be a lot of differing information online about whether or not you should be using heat or ice to help manage pain and reduce inflammation.
As your partner in health, we wanted to set the record straight.
Here are a few tips for choosing heat and ice when it comes to specific injuries.
Headaches: If you have a throbbing headache, instead of reaching for a pain reliever like ibuprofen, consider using a cold compress at the base of your skull and around your neck (no more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time though). However, if you’re dealing with a constant headache without throbbing it may be a tension headache and for this choose a warm compress around your neck to help relax tight muscles. If you suffer from frequent headaches, come see if our combination of muscle release work and chiropractic can help you!
New Injuries (less than six days old): Ice is usually the winner when it comes to new injuries. That’s because ice may help constrict blood vessels, which lowers pain and inflammation. During that initial injury phase, we need to calm our immune system down and ice helps with this. Heat, on the other hand, may increase inflammation in new injuries.
Chronic Injuries (older than a few weeks weeks): Choose a heating pad for lingering injuries as the warmth may help promote circulation and relax tight muscles, which can relieve stiff joints, reduce pain and promote healing. The older the injury, the more we want to get new blood flow to the area to promote the healing. The only time we avoid this is if we are still seeing chronic swelling in the area. If you do, you should have us help you figure out why the inflammation/swelling is not going away.
Strains or Sprains: Using both heat and ice can be beneficial. Immediately after a strain or sprain, choose ice to help reduce swelling and inflammation. When inflammation has gone down, use heat to help relieve muscle stiffness.
Need More Help?
We’re always here for you. If you’re dealing with a new or chronic injury, consider booking a visit with our practice to find out if the combination of muscle release techniques, dry needling and gentle chiropractic adjustments could help. We’d love to see you!