Never apply heat to an infection or fresh injury! Or any other acute inflammation, like a flare-up of arthritis. Any time tissue has been physically damaged, it will be inflamed for a few days, give or take. If superficial tissue is sensitive to touch, if the skin is hot and red, if there is swelling, these are all signs that your injury is still fresh, and should not be heated.
But it can be surprisingly unclear! This is the puzzle at the centre of many chronic pain problems: the distinction between feeling damaged and being damaged.
The difference between a minor strain and a bad trigger point can be subtle. But there are many situations where this kind of ambiguity is a challenge, like low back pain. The next several sections explore different mechanisms and details of how heating might be helpful to people in pain:.
Lorimer Moseley. Explainer: what is pain and what is happening when we feel it? Cold kills! Hypothermia has been at or near the top of the list of threats to our safety throughout all of prehistory and most of history.
So a nice controlled source of warmth is probably just about the most basic reassuring thing there is. How hot is too hot? It depends on your tolerance. Some like it a lot hotter than others. Comic by Jake Likes Onions. Scientists have tested this.
The 3. A trigger point is a small patch of acutely sensitive soft tissue, a poorly understood little patch of sensory misery. However they work, no one doubts that these sensitive spots in muscle are common.
They can cause anything from stiffness and dull aching to show-stopping agony. The pain often spreads in confusing patterns, and they grow like weeds around other painful problems and injuries, making them interesting and tricky and incredibly common. And heat seems to be a particularly good therapy for trigger points. Never formally tested! But plausible. But it probably goes beyond that ….
Relaxation reduces resting muscle tone. There are many degrees of muscle tone between deep relaxation and a charlie horse. Many otherwise healthy people live in a state of uncomfortably high muscle tone, their muscles always a little clenched and exhausted, probably with some specific areas even worse from awkward working postures.
When do I use a hot pack or heating pad vs a cold pack for pain? Still not sure whether heat or cold is best for your injury? We'd be happy to help you sort it out.
Give us a call or book an appointment at our clinic. Have a question? These pads are different from other heating pads as they do not get extremely hot and you can use them at much lower temperatures.
This feature makes them ideal for people with sensitive skin. Heating pads come in plenty of different sizes. These include small, medium, large and king size. Different sizes are suitable for different situations and different parts of the body. For example, a large heating pad is most suitable for the treatment of areas such as your upper back or lower back.
A large heating pad is also great for the treatment of abdominal cramps and menstrual cramps. Similarly, in case you suffer from lower back pain on a regular basis, you will benefit from an extra large pad because it can treat the whole affected area at once. On the other hand, small heating pads are usually better for targeting shoulder and neck pain.
You can contour or hug these pads to your neck or wrap them around your shoulders. Small heating pads, for knee support, are available as well, if you would like to target heat on your knee region. Heat therapy is quite beneficial when used correctly. It is suitable for different types of pain ranging from stiff muscles to chronic back pain. Heat therapy products are preferable to other invasive kinds of treatment. The two main kinds of heat therapy are dry heat and moist heat.
There are some differences between these two heat therapies that you should know before you choose one over the other. Dry heat therapy draws moisture out of your skin. The upside of dry heat is that a lot of people often find it extremely convenient and easy to use.
The downside, however, is that it is likely to dehydrate your skin. A majority of dry heat products are usually electric. You can even find dry heat saunas. If you prefer the feel of dry heat on the skin, make sure that you use it at an appropriate temperature. If your skin feels too dry or dehydrated, then limit the use of dry heat therapy or move to moist heat.
Most heating pads offer dry heat and are more convenient and long-lasting compared to moist heating pads. Moist heat, on the other hand, is less likely to lead to skin dehydration. It is available in many different forms such as hot baths, steam towels, and moist heating pads , etc.
Moist heat helps enhance tissue elasticity which makes it perfect for people with aging or dry skin. A majority of experts recommend the use of moist heat over dry heat, which is because it is less likely to cause skin irritation and there is no risk of skin dehydration; also, it penetrates more deeply into your skin.
A moist heating pad is more effective as it uses moisture effectively to penetrate aching or painful areas. Also, moisture is a better at heat conduction compared to air. Many comparisons have proved that moist heat is about thirty times more effective than dry heat.
This effect implies that moist heat usually penetrates deeper into painful and sore areas that dry heat may not reach. A moist heating pad provides faster and deeper healing. Also, sore or aching tissues tend to tolerate moist heat better at higher temperatures compared to dry heat.
Heating pads are usually considered one of the most effective treatments for different types of body aches. However, not a lot of people know how convenient and valuable they can be lowering various body pains. Here is a list of different uses of a heating pad.
Lower back pain is one of the most common ailments that people suffer in their life. As a result, this restricts proper circulation and sends pain signals to the brain. See Pulled Back Muscle Treatment. Muscle spasm in the lower back can create sensations that may range from mild discomfort to excruciating lower back pain. Heat therapy can help relieve pain from the muscle spasm and related tightness in the lower back. Heat therapy dilates blood vessels vasodilation , which increases blood flow.
0コメント