Tag Archive for back pain

Heat vs Ice For pain reduction—which one to use and when?

One of the most common questions I get asked by patients in clinic is regarding the use of ice or heat in response to pain. Generally, the questions are regarding which one is better. The answer here is that they are both good, but for different types of pain or injury.

In my personal experience (and what is generally accepted in traditional medicine), ice is best used for new – or acute injuries (good for about 48 hours after the injury has occurred) and heat is better used for old – or chronic injuries. However use ice if you acutely aggravate an old injury site!

With fresh injuries such as spraining an ankle, swelling is a problem. One of your first concerns is to reduce heat and swelling around the area of injury to   reduce the pain as much as possible. By placing ice on the affected area, this can reduce swelling which in turn will minimise the pain. By placing the source of ice on the injury for 10 minutes  on, 10 minutes off, for a  3-4 rounds, you should start to feel the pain reduce.

Heat is best used with long term pain, such as chronic muscle tightness. Heat is a very good way to relax and loosen tissues in the body, which in turn will decrease pain caused from muscle tightness. Always make sure when using heat treatments that it is not too hot and never use it while sleeping. Leaving the heat source on the area of pain for about 15 minutes should be enough to see results.

So, next time you are thinking of a way to reduce pain, always think about heat or ice. They are easy to obtain, easy to use and very effective. Just remember, ice is good for fresh (acute) injuries in the first 48 hours and heat is good for older (chronic) injuries after the first 48 hours.

Can you fix me? How long will it take?

In my nearly 15 years of practice “Can you fix me?” certainly is the most common  question…. followed by: “How long will it take?”

Honestly, I don’t like to use the word ‘fix’  as I think it gives people unrealistic expectations. Instead I will tell a person if I believe chiropractic can help them after I have assessed their situation.

Fortunately the majority of the time the answer is “Yes, I can help you”.  However,  how much I can help and how long it takes depends on a number of factors:

  • The length of time the problem has been apparent
  • The age of the person and whether there is any spinal deterioration or scar tissue
  • The person’s occupation or daily duties
  • The relative well-being and lifestyle choices of the person
  • The attitude, optimism and willingness of the person to help themselves to get well.

The most successful clients are those who not only follow our recommendations but participate in their own care and  doing what they can themselves to assist their own healing! The journey to well-being is a partnership between the practitioner and the client.

We need to understand how our body functions and what we need to do to maintain optimal health.  There is a difference between fixing our car and maintaining it or fixing our teeth and maintaining them.  This idea has not been translated well enough to our nervous system and our overall health.

Most people who seek chiropractic care are people who present with symptoms such as neck pain, headache or back pain that need some sort of help. Attempted to have their problem fixed definitely make great sense but if the person is not educated on the concept of maintaining the structure of the spine, most of the time the problems will return.

This would not be different than taking painkiller every day for headaches or back pain, muscle relaxant every day for muscle spasm or go to the dentist to get all the cavities filled instead of brushing teeth. These are not proper long term solutions to maintain the integrity of the body.

True health comes from within and needs to be maintained to function optimally. There is no doubt that there may always be a chance that something needs to be fixed but regular maintenance of healthy spine must not be ignored and essential  to avoid serious problems that might have a great cost.

See your chiropractor and get your spine check regularly!

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