5 Occasions to Use Heat Therapy

Hot or cold? Is now the time for an ice pack or a hot compress?

A lot of confusion surrounds this issue. Advice from health care professionals may not always be consistent, and protocols for treating injuries sometimes do change when science finds better ways. The techniques you learned for handling an injury twenty years ago may no longer apply today.

It’s no surprise that many people are sometimes confused about what to do to speed healing and treat pain. If you have soreness or swelling in your joints or muscles, you may wonder, “When do I use cold therapy? When is the right time to use heat therapy?”

Heat therapy vs. Cold therapy: When to Use Each

Instinctively, most of us want to apply warmth to sore body parts. There’s something comforting about the feel of a hot compress, a heating pad, or a hot bath. But heat, which stimulates blood flow to an injured body part, isn’t always the best move.

Likewise, you may feel pain and think to use ice as a numbing agent. But cold therapy is a short-term solution and can actually damage tissue if you use it for too long. Cold is also not the right choice for treating certain types of pain or injury.

So when should you use each? Generally, you can follow this rule of thumb:

Apply Cold to new or immediate injuries (for example, swollen ankles or fingers, stubbed toes, pulled muscles, or torn tendons).

• Cold — applied on and off in intervals — constricts vessels and slows blood flow to the site of the injury. This keeps swelling under control.

• Cold therapy (also called cryotherapy) is a good front-line approach to numbing nerve endings and and reducing fluid build-up. Keeping swelling and pain controlled allows you to use the affected body part.

• A good way to remember this rule is to think of the letter “c” in both words, “cold” and “acute”

Apply Heat to treat achy muscles and chronic pain.

• Heat has the opposite function of cold therapy. Applying heat to a body part stimulates blood circulation to the injury site. This oxygen-rich blood brings nutrients to the affected area, promoting healing. Heat also helps to remove lactic acid buildup from overtaxed muscles, which allows them to “un-clench.”

• Heat therapy (also called thermotherapy) is helpful in managing pain and discomfort from stiff and sore muscles and joints.

• A good way to remember when to use heat is to think of the phrase, “Heat to treat.”

• Whereas cold is most often used as a first-aid intervention, heat can be used in an ongoing fashion to treat and manage chronic pain or older injuries (older than three days).

There are exceptions to every rule, of course, but generally you can follow these guidelines unless a doctor tells you otherwise.

5 Ways to Use Heat Therapy

1. After a workout — to sooth sore muscles. After exercising or overtaxing your muscles, they may feel tight, tired, or sore from tiny tears and a buildup of lactic acid. You have two options for treating post-workout muscle soreness.

• You can use locally applied heat (like a heat patch or heated bean bag) if you’re sore in just one area.

• Systemic heat (for example, soaking in hot tub or using a sauna) is helpful for the all-over aches and pains you might feel after playing sports or being on your feet all day. Many people like to use hydrotherapy for sore muscles, especially sore feet.

• Both methods promote circulation and help to remove lactic acid from the muscles, helping them to relax. Remember to hydrate and not to overdo it — especially if you’re exposing your entire body to thermotherapy. Twenty minutes of treatment at a time should be sufficient.

2. To treat muscle spasms. A spasm is a series of sudden, involuntary contractions of a muscle. Spasms are the body’s warning to stop stressing the body part in question right now, and they tend to happen when we overexert ourselves suddenly. The contractions are usually so debilitating and severe that we stop what we’re doing and immediately clutch the muscle in question. (Think lower back spasms or charley horse leg cramps in the calf.)

• If you’re having serious, ongoing spasms that last longer than a few minutes, apply ice 20 minutes at a time for the first 3 days. After that, use heat therapy to loosen up your tight muscles and promote healing. Moist heat is recommended to avoid dehydration (examples: a hot tub soak or applying a warm, wet cloth.)

3. To ease lower back pain and stiffness. For people with chronic lower back pain and stiffness, heat therapy can be an affordable approach to managing symptoms and improving range of motion. Heat stimulates the body to deliver nutrient-rich blood to damaged tissue surrounding the spine; this, in turn, promotes faster healing of tiny muscle tears. Thermotherapy also warms the muscles and tendons in your lower back, making them easier to stretch safely. Warm muscles are more flexible muscles.

• To ease lower back pain, try localized heat packs applied to your back. Hot tubs, soaks, or heated wraps may also be helpful.

4. To reduce sciatica pain. Sciatica nerve pain can feel like an electric shock, pins and needles, or shooting pain in your buttocks or leg. Often the pain radiates down the outside of the hip, sometimes traveling as far as the calf.

• Treating sciatica can involve a combination of therapies, both nonsurgical and surgical. Most people prefer to start out with a noninvasive approach — physical therapy and the application of cold and heat.

• Start out with cold therapy for the first 3 to 5 days (using cold for 20 minutes of each hour, applied to the lower back). Cold helps to reduce the initial nerve inflammation that causes the pain. Later, heat packs can be applied to your lower back to help manage ongoing discomfort. Soaking in a hot tub may also help to ease symptoms.

5. To manage chronic arthritis symptoms. Excessive swelling from arthritis flare-ups can respond well to brief applications of cold packs or ice. However, for managing the day-to-day pain and stiffness of OA, heat is a reliable and easy technique you can use yourself, at home or at work.

• Applying heat packs, warm paraffin wax treatments, heat therapy gloves, or hot compresses to sore joints can help relieve pain and stiffness.

• Warming topical creams can also be helpful — for example, creams and gels that include capsaicin (the natural heating component of chili peppers).

• It’s important to note that heat is not a cure or treatment for disease of arthritis, but it can make it easier for you to cope with the discomfort.

Remember: never apply very hot cloths or heating pads directly to your skin. Heat sources should be warm to very warm, but never so hot that they can scald or blister you.

Also, stay hydrated— especially if you’re soaking in a warm tub or using a sauna or steam room. As with ice therapy, it’s best to limit the application of heat to 20 minutes at a time avoid further damaging your tissue or overheating yourself to the point of dehydration.

The bottom line: many different thermotherapy modalities exist to help treat pain and stiffness. When in doubt, consult with your doctor or physical therapist about the best method to address your particular symptoms.

Contact Coastal Orthopedics in Corpus Christi, Texas at 361.994.1166 or just click the button below to request your appointment today!

Article written by: Rob Williams, MD

How to Heal Through Heat Therapy

Injuries can be unavoidable, especially when “being active” is your motto. When you’re injured, it’s vital to choose the right type of therapies and treatment to ensure your body heals properly and quickly. The abundance of information available can make it difficult to determine the best type of treatment to help you recover as quickly as possible. The following article explores the use of heat therapy, in particular.

Knowing when to apply heat therapy to your injury is critical to success. A common misconception is because heat “feels good”, it is enhancing healing. Just because heat feels good temporarily, does not mean that it is going to assist in healing the injured area. Improper application of heat therapy will assuredly worsen your condition and slow the healing process. To best know what kind of therapy and treatment method is the right fit for you, as well as how to apply the treatment, consult a Doctor of Physical Therapy who will walk you through the recovery process and provide specific instructions.

HEAT THERAPY MAY BE A GREAT CHOICE IN THESE SITUATIONS:

• To increase your range of motion in a particular area
• To relieve stiffness and tension in your tissues and joints
• To improve the circulation of blood flow to an injured area

TYPES OF HEAT THERAPY:
Heat therapies are not all equal in application, duration, or effect. You’ll want to choose a specific therapy for your injury to maximize recovery time, while minimizing damage to the other tissues or joints.

• Dry heat therapy (conductive heat): This type of superficial therapy works by placing the heat source directly on the injured area. Examples of dry heat therapy include the use of gel packs, heating pads, and saunas. A caveat with dry heat therapy is that it dehydrates the skin by pulling moisture out.
• Moist heat therapy (convective heat): This type of superficial therapy works by immersing the injured area in a fluid, which is then heated. Examples of moist heat therapy include hot air baths, fluidotherapy, and whirlpools.
• Conversion heat therapy: This type of therapy can be superficial or deep. The difference between the two types of heat therapies is that deep heat therapy treatments target deep tissues, like muscles; whereas superficial heat therapies do not. In conversion heat therapy, a form of energy (i. e. light) is being converted into another form (heat). An example of this type of conversion heat therapy include radiant heat therapy; although, it’s important to note that only photons with long waves penetrate superficially. Shorter photon wavelengths, while more therapeutic, are considered to be a deep heat therapy.
• Alternative heat therapy: This type of therapy utilizes alternatives methods to provide heat to an injured area. Examples of naturopathic heat therapies include the use of pleoids (peat from bogs in bags), hay bags, and mustard packs.

TYPES OF HEAT TREATMENT:
Each treatment is based on the type of therapy chosen and the type of injury sustained.

• Local: This treatment is focused on the specific site of the injury, and it covers a relatively small area. Injuries where local treatment is beneficial include osteoarthritis, sprains, strains and knots in your muscle tissues. Smaller heat packs, Ultrasound and Laser treatments are particularly useful in these situations.
• Regional: If you have soreness and stiffness over a larger part of the body, regional treatments will help to relieve pain and tension in not only the injured area, but the surrounding tissues as well. Examples of therapies used in regional treatments include larger heating pads, heating wraps, diathermy and radiant heat. Types of injuries that respond well to regional treatments include soreness from overexertion, menstrual pain, and restless leg syndrome.
• Whole Body: This type of treatment is used when the whole body, and not just the injured area, is exposed to the therapy. Examples of therapies used during whole body treatments include saunas, hot baths, and jet whirlpools. If you have experienced whole body pain or rheumatic disorders, whole body treatments prove to be very beneficial.

LENGTH OF TREATMENT:
Duration of treatment is dependent on three major factors:

1. Type of injury
2. Length of time since the injury and your current inflammatory response
3. Method of therapy applied

Because heat encourages increased blood flow to the injured tissue, it can increase inflammation in recent injuries. If your injury is recent (occurring within the past 7 days or less), heat is not the recommended therapy, and ice may be the best option. In the event you have stiffness and tension in your body, it is ideal to choose a regional or whole body treatment and apply the heat source for 15-30 minutes, always letting comfort guide. If you are treating moderate to severe pain, it is more ideal to choose a local or regional treatment and apply the heat source for approximately 30 minutes, depending on your specific type of injury and what your Doctor of Physical Therapy recommends.

It’s imperative to keep in mind that certain heat treatments, such as heating pads, should be monitored closely while in use because if they are left on the body for too long or used improperly, they can cause serious burns. If in doubt, cut the heat out.

CONTRAINDICATIONS TO HEAT THERAPY:
More important than choosing which type of heat therapy to use is knowing when not to use heat therapy due to medical reasons. Discussed below is a large sample of situations in which you should avoid using heat therapy before consulting with a Doctor of Physical Therapy. The following is not an exhaustive list, but contains major factors to consider when using heat as a therapy.

• Hypersensitivity to heat – too painful.
• Hyposensitivity to heat or if you cannot feel if the heat source is too hot – This could cause severe burns if the heat isn’t modified.
• Malignant tumors – Heat increases blood flow to an area which is not indicated in this case.
• Swelling or bruising in the area – Cold therapy treatment may be considered instead.
• Directly post-surgery or if there is an open wound – Post-surgical sites and open wounds should generally be kept dry.
• Dermatitis – Heat could aggravate the condition.
• Diabetes – People with diabetes tend to overheat and become dehydrated quicker than those without, and insulin breaks down rapidly in heat.
• Vascular disease – Heat causes the arteries to expand, causing increased blood flow to the area.
• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) – Heat will increase blood flow to the area it is applied to, aggravating the thrombus.
• Multiple sclerosis (MS) – Heat causes worsening of symptoms (such as blurred vision). These symptoms commonly will reverse when the heat is removed. It does not cause increased demyelation of nerves.

As always, you should consult your Doctor of Physical Therapy if you wonder if you need physical therapy or heat treatment, as well as being upfront about your full medical history to your physical therapist to ensure you are getting the care you need to relieve your pain and tension while keeping you safe.

Contact us to schedule an appointment with a Doctor of Physical Therapy at Wright Physical Therapy. This will be especially beneficial to your recovery. Our highly skilled doctors can help you explore your options of using either superficial or deep heat therapy in conjunction with other complimenting treatments.

Heat treatment

Heat treatment is one of the most common traditions in various medicines. First of all, of course, this applies to traditional medicine, but today official medicine is increasingly recognizing the benefits of heat. Of course, it must be applied correctly.

In Tibetan medicine, for deep heating of body parts, first of all, stone therapy is used – the application of heated smooth stones. For this procedure, a special Tibetan basalt is traditionally used, which retains heat well and has an optimal heat transfer rate. Smooth marine basalts of volcanic origin from Southeast Asia are also used.

Heating parts of the body promotes blood flow and improves circulation. For example, the treatment of osteochondrosis of the spine includes stone therapy in order to activate blood flow to the intervertebral discs and thereby improve their nutrition.

In case an impact on a large area of ​​the body is required, massage with heated stones is used. This procedure was known even in the army of Genghis Khan, where it was used to quickly restore soldiers after a battle.

Massage with heated stones relaxes muscles well, eliminates muscle spasms and hypertonicity. Stone therapy is especially effective in combination with acupressure. The elimination of muscle spasms is of key importance when complex treatment of lumbar osteochondrosis is carried out, as well as other types of osteochondrosis and its complications – protrusions and hernias. However, this does not mean that if you have lower back pain, heat should be applied immediately. The effect of heat will be beneficial only if there is no inflammation. Meanwhile, with lumbar sciatica, pinching of the nerve root is accompanied by its inflammation, which means that warming up the lower back may be undesirable.

The same is true for diseases of the joints. If the knee hurts, it does not mean that it must be warmed up. After all, if arthrosis became the cause of pain, then heat will be beneficial, and if the pain is caused by an inflammatory disease – arthritis, heat is categorically contraindicated! And if the treatment of arthrosis in Tibetan medicine includes thermal procedures – stone therapy, moxibustion – then the treatment of arthritis is carried out without thermal exposure.

The combination of stone therapy with moxibustion – heating of bioactive points with the help of a wormwood cigar or a cone, is used for a wide range of diseases. This combination of procedures shows very good results when the treatment of bronchial asthma and chronic bronchitis is required.

Finally, the effect of heat has a beneficial effect on the state of the nervous system. The combined use of stone therapy, moxotherapy with acupuncture and massage is effective in cases where there is chronic fatigue syndrome, various sleep disorders, depression, nervous system disorders associated with the effects of stress.

Separately, it should be said about kidney diseases. It is believed that the kidneys love warmth. Indeed, this is a very thermophilic organ, the cooling of which is extremely detrimental to its health. Such cooling can occur both through the lumbar region and through the soles of the feet. Accordingly, the treatment of chronic kidney disease will include warming up the lower back (stone therapy) and feet. Of course, this only applies to chronic diseases. In acute nephritis and exacerbations of chronic nephritis, heat is contraindicated, as in any acute inflammatory processes.

what it is and why it is good for joints

Dry heat is a safe and affordable method that is highly effective in the treatment of joint diseases. Thanks to the procedure, blood circulation in the painful area increases, the pain recedes, the joints recover better.

Heat therapy has always been in demand. Even in ancient Egypt there was such a procedure that helps relieve pain, swelling, inflammation. It can be used for both treatment and prevention.

This is a contact method that allows you to get rid of unpleasant pain symptoms. For the procedure, compresses are used that have excellent heat dissipation, thanks to which it is possible to improve blood microcirculation. Dry heat treatment can prevent the development of diseases such as arthritis, arthrosis, rheumatism, as well as prevent the occurrence of injuries as a result of a bruise or sprain.

Dry heat treatment is used, as a rule, in addition to the main therapy. But it is important to remember that it should not be used on areas of the skin where the integrity of the skin is broken. This procedure is not done for those who are prone to bleeding. You can not warm the stomach if a person experiences pain in this area. In order for heat therapy to bring only benefits, you should consult with your doctor before starting treatment.

Why dry heat is good for joints

Heat therapy is suitable for the treatment of diseases of the musculoskeletal system:

1. Helps to get rid of pain.
2. Improves blood flow in the affected joint.
3. Eliminates muscle spasms.
4. Reduces inflammation.
5. Makes joints more elastic.
6. Improves the repair of damaged tissues.

This is one of the most effective methods, allowing for a short period of time to significantly improve a person’s condition.

Proper joint warming with dry heat

During the application of heat therapy, certain rules must be observed, otherwise such a procedure will not benefit, but only harm. For example, the temperature of the heating pad should not be too high; it is impossible to heat any part of the body for a long time. If you do not follow the technology of heat therapy, a burn on the skin may occur.

Often the treatment of joints in heat therapy occurs with the use of blue lamps, bags with different contents, heating pads, which have a healing effect on the diseased joint in order to reduce the manifestation of symptoms. Heat therapy can also be done at home, before going to bed. A warming effect can be obtained from iodine mesh, pepper patches.

Heat therapy with cherry pits

Cherry pits need to be cleaned and dried. Then they must be put in a pan or put in the microwave to heat up to 60 ° C. After that, they need to be poured into a tissue bag, and it should be applied to the diseased joint.

Cherry pits have good heat dissipation. This is a natural product that also exudes a pleasant aroma when heated. The bag of bones should be kept on the problem area until it cools down.

Salt heaters

Any salt is suitable for warming up a problem joint: both large and small. First, it must be heated in a pan to 60 ° C, and then cool slightly. The heated salt must be transferred to a cloth bag and applied to where pain is felt. Keep it until it cools down, which is about 30-50 minutes. There is no point in applying a bag of cold salt. It is recommended that after this procedure, apply olive oil or baby cream to warmed skin to moisturize it a little.

Application of joint warmer

In pharmacies or specialized stores you can find heating pads. These are rubber products filled with hot water. There may also be electric ones. They are convenient to use to warm up a sore joint. In addition, they have proven their effectiveness in heat therapy.

Before applying a hot heating pad to the problem area, it is necessary to wrap it with some kind of cloth, otherwise you can seriously burn yourself. It is also not recommended to leave the heating pad overnight. And it should be remembered that the water does not need to be heated more than 55 ° C.

Heat therapy with various cereals

If for some reason it was not possible to carry out heat therapy using cherry seeds, then different cereals can be used, for example, wheat, rice, buckwheat, since they also have good thermal conductivity.

• Pour the cereal into the pan, or use the oven (200°C, 20 minutes) to heat it up.
• After that, it is poured into a cotton bag, and it is applied to the diseased joint.
• Do not keep the pouch too hot on the skin to avoid burning.

Blue lamps

A blue lamp can also warm up the joints well. These devices can be purchased from specialized stores.