Relieve Back Muscle Pain
Relieve Back Muscle Pain With Cold Therapy (Cryotherapy)
Almost everyone who has back muscle pain can warm up to the idea of soothing sore, aching muscles with heat. But who ever heard of treating your back muscle pain by curling up in bed with a shockingly cold ice pack?
But even if ice sounds bad, or temporarily feels bad, remember that it can do wonders for your back muscle pain, especially when you have marked inflammation or ‘burning pains’. Ice also relieves certain kinds of chronic back pain, especially for people with nerve root irritation. Most therapist who recommend using ice advise you to apply it immediately after you have strained a muscle in your back. Don’t stop after the first 24 to 48 hours, but use it on a regular basis as long as there are spasms that continue to cause the back muscle pain pain.
The easiest way to apply cold therapy at home is to take a packet of frozen peas (still in the wrapper), cover it in a damp tea towel and place it on the painful area for up to 20 minutes, checking the skin condition throughout. Note: It is important not to lie on the ice pack, as the pressure could give you an ice burn.
Why Use Ice For Back Muscle Pain?
Cold, like heat, is a counter-irritant, so you tend to feel the cold, not the pain. Moreover, when applied long enough, cold numbs all sensation.
Cold reduces swelling and bruising, and slows the nerve conduction, which in turn slows down the pain signals passing through your body.
Cold ’shocks’ a muscle spasm into relaxing.
Cold lessens inflammation from muscle strain, which eases back muscle pain and can end the pain-spasm cycle.
How to Use Ice
Typically, patients a chiropractor’s care used a 5-minutes-on, 5-minutes-off, 5-minutes-on technique. This total of 10 minutes application was then repeated every 2 hours.
Patients under the care of a medical doctor or physiotherapist usually applied ice for 10 to 20 minutes at a time, two or three times a day.
What should you do?
If you’re using ice to reduce the swelling and inflammation of a newly incurred back muscle pain, apply ice cubes in a plastic bag for up to 10 to 15 minutes at a time, every 2 hours, for the first 36 hours.
- If you’re using ice to treat chronic muscle spasm, apply an ice bag for 10 to 15 minutes, two or three times a day.
- Try substituting an ice massage for an ice pack. To do this, you need a paper cup and a friend. Fill the paper cup with water and freeze it. Then tear off the top 1 inch of the cup and have someone massage the affected area, in circular motions, for about 15 minutes, always moving towards the heart.
- Note: There is a risk of ice burn or even frostbite. Therefore, never apply ice directly on your skin, unless someone is continuously moving the ice from one area to another.
- If you’re using ice cubes, put them in an ice bag or plastic bag and place a thin towel between the bag and your skin. If your skin turns red, that’s a warning. If it becomes white or numb, discontinue use.
If you have arthritis or another medical condition as well as your back muscle pain, don’t use ice unless it is recommended by a specialist.
Combining Cold and Heat Therapy
Several back sufferers have successfully combined heat with ice to relieve severe and chronic back muscle pain, including both spasms and soreness. They first take a warm bath or shower, or use a heating pad, to relax and relieve soreness and pain. Then they use cold treatments on the areas that continue to spasm and hurt. The result? Much more back pain relief than when just heat or cold therapy was used on its own. Also, this form of therapy for back muscle pain can be particularity relaxing.
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