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Ice vs Heat for Injuries

It is incredible to think of how great our body is. However, when an injury occurs, it may feel like the body is our worst enemy. Regardless of what you do and what your profession is, having an injury is never a good thing. There is a positive side to this though and that is the fact that your body is hard at work to recover and regain its strength following the injury. Knowing that, you are also able to assist the body in the healing process.

The best way that we can help our bodies recover faster is to apply ice or heat to the injury shortly after it occurs. The thing with ice or heat is that you would use ice for injuries that are fresh and heat would be best for muscles that are ache and stiff. With that said, there are some details involved with both treatment methods

First, ice is best used on an injury to help relax the tissues that are damaged and have become swollen, red, or inflamed. You need to keep in mind that inflammation is a normal undertaking that helps relieve the tissues. It can also have some pain involved. When icing is done, it is a good way to quickly dull the pain that you are experiencing

The second is using heat. This treatment method is used for stress and, muscles, and pain that is extreme in nature. It can quickly cut the symptoms in half for stiffness and aches. With a trigger point involved, they are most likely the cause of the pain. When heat is applied, it has the ability to soothe both the nervous system and body itself.

If you decide to alternate the use of ice and heat, it can be a nice stimulation that has plenty of benefits and helps to ease your recovery.

What You Should Not Use Ice or Heat For

Having ice and heat therapy could cause adverse reactions if the treatments are not used in the manner for which they were designed. With heat, it could cause inflammation to increase, which ice could also exasperate the feelings of stiffness and tightening of muscles.

You also need to make sure to use the icing when the individual is not already cold or using heat when the individual´s core body temperature is high.

When you add heat to an injury that had just occurred, it will possibly backfire and cause even more damage and swelling.

In Conclusion

Incurring an injury that needs to have ice or heat applied can be a bothersome experience. However, when you correctly apply the treatments, you will have instant relief. If you are experiencing a painful injury and would like to know what the correct methods entail, then you should get a hold of us today.

Posted in: Auto Accident Doctor, Back Pain Treatment, Blog, Construction Accidents, Injury Treatment, Neck Pain Treatment, Orthopedics, Slip and Fall Accidents, Work Injuries, Workers Compensation