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!

Cold Therapy and Heat Therapy for Pain

Heat therapy and cold therapy both serve to relieve pain; however, they have different indications and act via different mechanisms.

Although relatively safe, both heat therapy and cold therapy have certain contraindications. Some conditions will benefit greatly from cold therapy but will suffer adverse effects from heat therapy. Other conditions are better off with heat therapy. Others still can benefit from either, achieving effective pain relief from both temperature modalities.

How is cold therapy different from heat therapy?

It is important to understand how cold therapy and heat therapy differ from each other:

• Stiff joints will benefit more from heat therapy. Cold therapy may increase joint stiffness.
• Heat therapy, especially when involving large areas of the body, may decrease blood pressure as blood pools in the warmed areas. Cold therapy may increase blood pressure. Therefore, hypertensive patients have an added benefit of lowered BP from heat therapy, while cold therapy is useful in situations like acute hemorrhage where a stable blood pressure is vital.
  To read the rest of the list, read heat therapy versus cold therapy.

When is cold therapy contraindicated?

Some conditions benefit more from cold therapy than heat therapy. Others, however, should stay away from cold therapy:

• A person suffering from hypertension should use cold therapy with extreme caution. Cold therapy constricts the blood vessels, raising the blood pressure. This poses a risk for you if you are already hypertensive.
• People with Raynaud’s disease should avoid cold therapy. Raynaud’s disease is a condition that gets worse when blood vessels constrict.
• If you have rheumatoid arthritis, cold therapy will barely be beneficial. Consequently, heat therapy is a better recommendation.
• People suffering from blood vessel impairment, such as frostbite and arteriosclerosis, should stay away from cold therapy modalities. Further blood vessel constriction may complicate the situation.
• There are people who are “allergic” to cold; they should avoid cold therapy to prevent anaphylactic shock. Also known as cold urticaria or cold allergy, this is a potentially dangerous condition that may end in anaphylaxis.
• People who have paroxysmal cold hemoglobinuria are not allowed to use cold therapy. When exposed to cold, these people exhibit blood in their urine.
• For similar reasons, people with cryoglubulinemia should avoid cold therapy.
  What conditions will benefit more from cold therapy? Read how heat therapy versus cold therapy affect conditions in different ways.

Has cold therapy given you relief from pain? Share your story and leave a comment below!

Natural Pain Remedies for a Toothache

It is a searing, throbbing pain you wouldn’t wish on anyone. Your appointment with the dentist seems like light years away as you endure your toothache every minute – now it becomes every second. Not to worry – while you still haven’t met your dentist, you can give your aching tooth quick relief.

Below are some ways to give you guaranteed relief from that toothache:

• Visualization. Yes, this really helps neutralize the pain! Close your eyes, breathe deeply a few times, then imagine yourself swimming or floating in ice-cold water. Or if you live in a country  with four seasons, imagine yourself playing in the snow. Feel – really feel – the sensations of that moment. Let the cold of the water or the water pierce your skin and your muscles until you feel them numbing. Then feel this extreme cold rubbing your tooth and giving it relief. That should lessen your toothache. Repeat it as often as necessary.
• Cloves. If you are at home and you have these as one of the spices in your kitchen, you’re in luck! Place a few cloves between your tooth and your cheek. This is one of the very effective ways to give your toothache natural relief. Just chew the cloves a little to release their juice and leave them in your mouth for around 30 minutes. You will start feeling the pain lessen soon. As a variation, you can use clove oil if you have it but mix with a little water as it is quite strong. Rub the oil in the affected area.
• Activated charcoal. This is an arguably all-around natural relief for many pains and ailments, so best to stock up on this in your kitchen. Anyway, you can get this in a health food store. Mix a tablespoonful of activated charcoal powder with water until you form a paste. Apply the paste on a bit of gauze then bite down on the gauze using your affected tooth. Bite hard enough so that the paste will go around your tooth. Your toothache should diminish in around ten minutes.

So there you have it, some simple remedies that will certainly give you relief from that toothache!

If your toothache is really starting to bother you, it may be best to visit your dentist. Even if dentists do use drugs to make you feel better, they may also suggest other help suggest some natural pain remedies other than those in this article.

One other natural pain remedy for toothaches is a cold compress. Did you know that both pain and temperature are transmitted by the same type of nerves, which explains why using a cold compress helps stop the transmission of pain? Read more on cold therapy.

Any reactions? Please share your thoughts and post a comment.