What Is Best For Arthritis Pain Heat Or Ice

Heat wins for arthritis and injuries that linger more than six weeks.

What is best for arthritis pain heat or ice.

But for acute gout flares she favors ice. Conventional medical wisdom suggests using ice to treat an acute injury or pain that occurs after activity. Heat boosts the flow of blood and nutrients to an area of the body. Apply heat before your mall trip and cold after you return home.

Accordingly heat applications can sometimes work best early in the day by relaxing the muscles around the joints while ice applications at the end of the day can minimize the inflammation resulting from the daily activities. It often works best for morning stiffness or to warm up muscles before activity. Heat and cold treatments can help relieve arthritis pain and inflammation. The thermotex infrared heating pad tts platinum model is the most popular although there are other thermotex therapy systems available.

Use of heat such as applying heating pads to aching joints taking hot baths or showers or immersing painful joints in warm paraffin wax can help relieve pain temporarily. Ice is preferred but heat wraps can halt neck spasms that contribute to headache. You can experiment with. Cold slows blood flow reducing swelling and.

Heat loosens up muscles increases flexibility and increases circulation. For an acute injury such as a pulled muscle or injured tendon the usual recommendation is to start by applying ice to reduce inflammation and dull pain. Before and after physical activity what about prior to exercise activity. Ice ice packs and other cold therapies can help reduce knee pain and muscle spasms.

Be careful not to burn yourself. Patients with more chronic osteoarthritis usually feel better with heat says rheumatologist linda mileti md. Once inflammation has gone down heat can be used to ease stiffness. Sometimes deep penetrating heat is the best thing to reduce your arthritis pain.

While prescription medication and physical therapy are the first line of defense for addressing arthritis causes an age old home remedy heat or cold therapy may help reduce pain and improve.