Newport Beach Chiropractor Discusses When to Use Ice/Heat

HEAT OR ICE?

Newport Beach Chiropractor discusses  when to use ice or heat.  All to often when I ask if the patient has iced the area of complaint, I get the  same response time and time again,  “No, I put heat on it because the heat felt good.”  To understand when to use what, we need to take a deeper look at  pain, what is causing it and how long it’s been there.  When you first injure an area your body tries to splint the area to limit the possibility of injuring it further.  This splinting comes in the form of inflammation. The inflammation causes pressure and pain.  This is an acute injury (an injury that happened recently).  As your body heals the injured or stressed area the inflammation is supposed to decrease and eventually leave the area when healing is completed.  Unfortunately, sometimes these areas do not heal correctly and scar tissue forms and our bodies continue to produce inflammation, or inflammation has a hard time leaving the affected area and becomes a chronic injury (an injury that has been there for a long time).

So when do I use ice/heat?  The answer:  You should use ice in both injuries and heat only in a chronic injury.  The bigger question is how to use them and why.  With an acute injury your goal is to decrease pain and decrease inflammation, which is why you want to ice the affected area.  The ice reduces blood flow thus decreasing  inflammation and at the same time numbing the pain.  You should ice for 15-20 minutes, don’t ever go over 20 minutes because then your body goes into frostbite mode and the body will actually increase blood flow to prevent frostbite, which would be the opposite of what you want.  You should reapply the ice every hour as needed.  Reapplying too soon may also cause the body to act in frostbite mode, so every hour is a good guideline.  With a chronic injury it’s best to use both, ice and heat.  The goal here is to heat up the affected area when rehabbing or exercising, then ice the area down after use, so inflammation doesn’t reoccur.  The heat brings blood flow to the tissue allowing it to be more pliable and new blood flow speeds up healing time.  After using the affected area you don’t want the blood and inflammation to pool in the injury so ice is then applied.

Here are some common examples of situations and what you should use:

Bending over to pick up a box and you hurt your back.  Ice only.  Then see your chiropractor.

My shoulders and neck are tight and sore after working all day.  Heat in morning and/or lunch and stretch then ice it down after work.

I woke up this morning and I have a lot of pain in my neck and can’t turn it.  Ice only.  Then see your chiropractor.

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