What Cold Therapy Can Do For You

Have you relied on a cold pack to give you relief from body aches and pains? Do you know of anyone who uses cold therapy for pain relief and other medical conditions?

If you answered yes to either question, you’re not alone. In fact, many people from all walks of life count on cold therapy for considerable pain relief and for many other reasons. Cold therapy helps relieve swelling and pain through several related mechanisms.

What are the many uses and benefits of cold therapy?

Other than relieving pain, cold therapy has many other uses. It influences tissue processes and can serve many purposes:

• Cold therapy helps decrease the rate of local metabolism. All processes are slowed down, giving your tissues the chance to recover from acute inflammatory processes.
• The cold temperature constricts blood vessels. Because of vasoconstriction, less inflammatory and pain signals are transported to the affected area.
• Cold therapy reduces swelling. Since cold reduces the caliber of blood vessels, seepage of fluid from the blood to the tissues is reduced. Swelling and edema are minimized.
• Cold packs play a big role in decreasing hemorrhage. If you have just suffered from a painful bleeding injury, cold therapy helps reduce blood flow to the injured area, reducing blood loss.
• The low temperature impairs transmission of nerve signals. This, in turn, provides much-needed analgesia in acute injuries.

  How is cold therapy applied?

  Many people use cold packs, cold compresses, and other forms of local cold therapy. However, not everyone knows how to use cold therapy properly to derive the most benefits from it. Below are the recommended guidelines for cold therapy use:
• To achieve therapeutic cold therapy, apply on the affected area of your body for about 5 to 20 minutes.
• After application, allow a period of rest. This rest period should have a duration of about 30 minutes.
• If you have muscle strains and sprains, it is recommended that you apply cold therapy during the first 24 to 48 hours.

Read on what conditions benefit from cold therapy.

Are you currently using cold therapy for pain? Has it been beneficial to you? Share your story with other readers; leave a comment!

Sources:

1. Loten C, Stokes B, Worsley D, et al. A randomised controlled trial of hot water (45 degrees C) immersion versus ice packs for pain relief in bluebottle stings. Med J Aust. Apr 3 2006;184(7):329-33. [Medline].

2. Greenstein G. Therapeutic efficacy of cold therapy after intraoral surgical procedures: a literature review. J Periodontol. May 2007;78(5):790-800. [Medline].

Cold Therapy for Burns, Trauma, and Other Painful Conditions

Many conditions can manifest with pain: acute injury, inflammation, burns, trauma, and muscle spasms, to name a few. These conditions can benefit tremendously from cold therapy in terms of natural pain relief and other mechanisms.

Although it is common knowledge that cold therapy provides pain relief, not everyone knows what painful conditions have been proven to benefit from it.

What conditions can benefit from cold therapy?

Pain reduction and relief is achieved after cold therapy in many scenarios. The more common indications for local cold therapy are enumerated below:

• Trauma. Cold therapy reduces edema after trauma. Apply local cold therapy at 8ºC. Do this for 30 minutes to help decrease the swelling.
• Burns. Although an involved area of your body has been successfully removed from the cause of the burn, there is still ongoing burn damage at a microscopic level. To stop extension of burn injuries after the event, provide local cold therapy. Apply cold immediately after superficial burns to reduce edema, pain, redness, and blistering. It is best to use cold therapy before any of these burn complications have occurred.
• Spastic muscles. Cold therapy inhibits muscle spasticity. To do this, provide cold therapy for at least ten minutes. If you have thick fat tissues, you may need to apply cold packs for a longer amount of time (60 minutes).
• Acute inflammation. Insect bites, minor trauma, and many other conditions that produce acute inflammation will benefit greatly from cold therapy.
• Pain. Cold therapy effectively numbs tissues, providing natural pain relief.
• Before limb amputation. If you are to undergo limb amputation (for diabetic foot, major trauma, cancer, etc), cold therapy reduces metabolic processes and helps reduce blood loss during the amputation surgery.
• Neurogenic weakness. Weakness brought about by nerve disease may benefit from cold therapy. The cold temperature produces muscle contractions, strengthening muscles in the process and “re-educating” the muscles.
• Knee flexion restriction after leg fractures. Cold therapy has been proven to be more effective than heat therapy combined with traction and stretching.

Although pain relief is an important goal in these conditions, the other benefits of cold therapy, such as reduced swelling and hemorrhage, are also vital. The use of cold therapy helps people overcome pain and enjoy a better quality of life.

Did you know that a hot compress might be better for other conditions? Learn about heat therapy.

Any violent reactions? Leave a comment!

Sources:

1. Lin YH. Effects of thermal therapy in improving the passive range of knee motion: comparison of cold and superficial heat applications. Clin Rehabil. Sep 2003;17(6):618-23. [Medline].

2. Oosterveld FG, Rasker JJ. Effects of local heat and cold treatment on surface and articular temperature of arthritic knees. Arthritis Rheum. Nov 1994;37(11):1578-82. [Medline].

Heat Therapy Versus Cold Therapy for Pain

Many people use either heat therapy or cold therapy to achieve natural pain relief. However, these two safe and natural pain relief modalities have specific indications. Some conditions respond better to heat, while others will benefit more from cold therapy.

For you to have a better grasp of how both heat and cold can be used for pain relief, you should learn about their similarities and differences.

 

How are heat therapy and cold therapy alike?

Heat therapy and cold therapy, although belonging to opposite ends of the spectrum, actually share some similarities:

• Both heat therapy and cold therapy decrease muscle spasms due to nerve or muscle disease.
• Cold and heat therapy both decrease spasticity due to upper motor neuron disease. However, cold therapy’s effects are expected to last longer and to be more effective in re-educating muscles.
• Both cold therapy and heat therapy cause significant pain relief.

How are heat therapy and cold therapy different?

Obviously, heat therapy and cold therapy have many differences in terms of how they work to provide pain relief and to relieve other conditions:

• When cold therapy is used, the tissues need a longer time to go back to their normal temperature as compared to heat therapy. That’s because heat therapy increases blood flow, encouraging any heated blood to be drained quickly.
• Heat therapy provides pain relief from muscle spasm by improving blood circulation and providing better oxygen supply. Cold therapy, on the other hand, provides a numbing effect.
• Metabolism of tissues is increased by heat therapy. Cold therapy produces the opposite effect and decreased metabolic rates of tissues.
• Heat therapy makes muscle contractions shorter. Cold therapy produces sustained muscular contractions, proving to be a great way to re-educate muscles in paralysis or spasticity from upper motor neuron disease.
• Circulation will increase with heat therapy. Cold therapy decreases blood circulation.
• Bleeding tendencies increase with heat therapy. Hemorrhage is reduced with cold therapy, making cold therapy useful in traumatic wounds.
• Swelling may be increased or decreased by heat, depending on how and when it is applied. Cold therapy reduces swelling.
• Burns will benefit more from cold therapy. Frostbite will benefit greatly from immediate warming.

Learn more about heat therapy and cold therapy.

Do you disagree with any of the points mentioned above? Leave a comment!