Hot or cold: which is best for your pain?
Advancing age can invite a host of new and recurring aches and pains. The more active you were in the years leading up to middle age, chances are some old sports injuries may come back to haunt you, too. About 50 million American adults report some form of chronic or severe pain, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Whether you’re a weekend warrior, regular gym goer or simply enjoy some leisurely activities with friends, your daily, weekly, pain flare-ups can often lead you to this question: Cold pack or hot pack, which should I use? Answering it can be confusing as you’ll often hear opposing suggestions. Here, Brandon Hepworth, an occupational therapist at Banner Baywood Medical Center, in Mesa, Ariz., helps us sort through some of the noise surrounding the topic.
Use it or heal it
When dealing with an ache or pain, ask yourself if the goal is to rest and heal or is it to offer temporary relief so that you can get back into action?
As a general rule, if it’s an injury or strain that needs to rest and heal, like an ankle sprain, for example, then “ice is nice,” Hepworth says. If you’re dealing with recurring pain that usually can be relieved enough for you to continue an activity, heat is usually the answer.
Here, Hepworth expands on a few specific scenarios:
-Arthritis: the lingering pain associated with osteoarthritis, or when cartilage between bone and joints breaks down, can wreak havoc on daily activity. You can feel it in your back and joints, and it can be quite debilitating for some. About one-third of adults over the age of 65 are affected by osteoarthritis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Heat is your best bet with arthritis of any kind, Hepworth notes. Heat increases circulation to the pain area, which can usually bring the relief needed to ease into activity. With arthritis, activity can often help to further ease pain.
-Tendonitis: Where arthritis pain can be helped with heat and physical activity, tendonitis is a pain that occurs in or around joints where the pain gets worse with activity. In this case, ice is the answer, Hepworth says. Wrap it for compression, ice and elevate, he adds.
-Muscle soreness and tightness during or after exercise: Weekend warriors know these pains and most simply try to battle through them. Again, by drawing blood to the area, heat helps to loosen and relax muscles to help you get back into action. When weekend warriors stop exercising and muscles cool down, it’s important to ice and rest the muscles to heal micro tears and reduce lactic acid buildup generated by activity, Hepworth explained.
-Sprains: Sprains require ice, which constricts blood flow to the region, decreasing swelling which allows healing to begin, Hepworth adds. Don’t forget to elevate, too. “It allows you to get good return blood flow to the region to help reduce swelling. That swelling is key to impeding healing,” he said.
-Chronic back pain, more on swelling: About eight out of 10 Americans will have some form of back problem in their lifetime. In addition, lower back pain is prevalent in about one-third of the 65-and-over population. A number of nerves run through the lower back area, explains Hepworth, so it’s a sensitive spot prone to pains. Heat is the usual go-to, however, if there is swelling or inflammation in the area, switch to ice and rest. Swelling of any muscle or region after exercise calls for ice.
-Cautionary note about heat: Do not apply heat to any open wound areas, the occupational therapist also warned. “Heat tends to be an incubator for germs and could increase the chances of infection.”
-Duration: Hepworth also comes across conflicting information on the length of time to apply a hot or cold pack. Apply a cold pack to an area until it feels numb, then remove it. For heat, in general, never more than 30 minutes, he recommends.
To learn more about how the Banner CORE Center for Orthopedics can help you lead an active, healthy lifestyle, visithttp://www.bannercorecenter.com.