We’ve all been there before. Maybe it was after a particularly hard work out. Maybe it was after playing catch with your son or daughter. Many of my patients have even described the onset as “I just woke up with it”. It’s that feeling of being in pain. Pain is your body’s way of signaling to you that something is wrong. While it serves as an effective protective measure against further injury, the bottom line is it hurts! Nobody really enjoys being in pain and all of us want it gone as soon as possible. One question that I get all the time as a physical therapist and even more now that I’ve started Tone and Tighten is “should I put heat or ice on it?” The effects of each are actually quite different and should be considered when treating pain. Keep reading to find out what I mean…
Heat: The two primary effects of heat are 1) increasing blood flow and 2) promoting relaxation. The warmth causes vasodilation of capillaries in a given area – essentially your blood vessels get bigger and more blood can come into an area. With this increased blood flow comes oxygen, platelets, collagen, etc, and other essential building blocks in tissue repair and healing. For these purposes, I typically recommend heat for tight, sore muscles. Body aches also respond well to heat. Anytime there’s pain in an area without a lot of inflammation (swelling and redness), heat can be a very effective means of decreasing pain.
Ice: I reach for the cold packs for essentially three reasons: 1) decrease inflammation, 2) acute pain, and 3) to decrease nerve conduction velocity. Ice is an amazing anti-inflammatory. After an injury the body elicits an inflammatory response which is essentially the signal for the healing process to begin to occur. Inflammation, in moderation, is essential and vital to healing. Unfortunately, it is often accompanied by pain. Ice is a great way of decreasing the magnitude of this inflammatory response and thereby decreasing pain as well. Whenever there is an acute injury to the body (sprains, strains, muscle pulls, acute overexertion, etc.) reach for the ice pack. Finally, a word about neural pain. The most common example of nerve pain that most people are familiar with is sciatica. This pain is the shooting, electric, sharp pain that starts in one area and radiates to another (i.e. sciatica: starts in the back/buttock area and shoots down the leg). Ice is typically better at decreasing nerve conduction velocity and decreasing this radicular pain.
So what’s the best for you? Well, it’s important to note that everything I just mentioned in this post is textbook and theory. Unfortunately in the world of medicine that means it’s correct approximately 60-90% of the time. That being said, what’s supposed to work for one injury may not always work for you. If one modality doesn’t elicit the response you’re after you might try the other to see which is more effective.
As always I appreciate your comments and questions. The majority of my favorite blog posts come from answering reader questions. If you have anything I can potentially help you out with don’t hesitate to ask! Email me at [email protected].
Make it happen,
Jared
By Jared Beckstrand
Have a great day!
Jared