Sometimes, many people get confuse to decide what should they do during injury or pain in body; Heat or Cold (Hot pack or Cold pack) and am sure many of you might be having similar confusion regarding heat or cold. Here, I am going to tell which one is better for any injury or pain relief.
Cold:-
Firstly, let’s talk about cold pack. Whenever we apply cold on skin, there is vasoconstrictor followed by vasodilator. Due to this pumping effect, the swelling, inflammation and painful metabolism get out from that area and we get relief from pain.
When to use Cold Pack:-
Cold pack must be used in Acute injuries means in the first 72 hours of an injury. In the first 72 hours, our body produces a lot of Inflammation, swelling and also a lot of pain as well too. So cold pack is gonna help with dulling the pain and decreased blood flow to injured area and reduce the swelling. Whenever you get injured, may be after a fall or while playing or suddenly there is swelling around your joints or if you fall and have bone injury and pain, swelling or redness, then you’ll use cold pack and you’ll using cold pack for first 48 to 72 hours of injury that is 2 to 3 days. Many times housewives suffer from thumb pain due to making chapati and since it’s a small area, so we can use ice cubes to that type of small areas. Main time to use cold pack is:-
Inflammation
Swelling
Sore muscles (after workout)
Pain
How to check inflammation:-
We can get to know about joint is inflamed of it’s red, swollen or warm to touch. For more information regarding this you can check it from here –
Duration of Cold Pack:-
Now, let’s understand for how long should we use cold pack. Cold pack should be done for every 3 hours for 10-15 minutes and if there is life constraints then atleast 3 to 4 times a day. Don’t use cold for long duration because it could be harmful for body.
Heat:-
You definitely don’t have to use heat when you first injure your body because you are gonna be producing a lot more swelling in that area. If you have chronic back injury then heat is gonna be great for that. Muscle get relax with heat that’s why while having muscle spasm we use hot pack to relax muscles. Heat increase the blood flow followed by vasodilation and that increase the oxygen and nutrients to that injured area which removes the toxins substance from that area and proceed the healing affect.
When to use Hot Pack:-
Hot pack is used in chronic condition means long duration injury or pain. Sometimes we may experience back stiffness or may get up in the morning with a stiff back or may have leg pain & muscle tightness due to lots of walking. For all these muscle Stiffness, tightness and pain we’ll use hot pack. By hot pack, there is increased blood flow which helps in muscle relaxation and also wash out all the pain metabolism and thus relieving pain.
If we have chronic back pain or we overuse our muscle then that overuse muscle makes the tightness in muscles, which decrease blood flow in body and we feel muscle pain. To treat that type of muscle pain we use heating.
Muscle Relaxation
Muscle Cramping
Chronic Injuries
Arthritis
Tight Muscles (Muscle Spasm)
Duration of Hot Pack:-
Must apply to the injured area for 3-4 times in a day for 15 minutes.
Conditions in which we don’t use heat as well as cold:-
1). If the body is having impaired sensation to heat and cold.
2). Area which is having any wound.
3). We don’t use these if we have ulcer on our treatment area.
4). Prevent these on cut marks.
5). Bleeding area.