What is heat and cold therapy?

[teric2008]

Hey friends can someone tell me what is heat and cold therapy. My father is suffering from a severe back pain and is really very depressed due to that. Someone told me to give him the heat and cold therapy which will help him in getting recovered soon from this problem of back pain. I really don’t know what is it and how does it work so please give me your suggestions on it.

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Alternating heat and cold on the area. Supposed to decrease inflammation while increasing blood flow. Personally, ice never did much for me. Heat helped much more than ice for back pain.

Heat, stretch, exercise, repeat....

 

[B5150]

It is my understanding that if the 'injury' is old the cold may be of less value.

Newer, fresh injuries seem to respond better to alternate heat and cold therapy. If I aggrevate my knee and there is visible swelling I will use the cold to reduce the swelling and then procede with the alternating.

I believe it was something like 15 mins cold, 15 mins heat, 15 mins nothing, repeat...YMMV

 

[BodyWizard]

Alternating hot & cold is a totally legitimate and effective modality when applied intelligently & consistently.

The real advantage of alternating hot & cold is that it creates a sort of pumping action, allowing nutrients into the damaged tissues at an enhanced rate/volume & damage debris out; this helps get around swelling, splinting & other adaptive mechanisms. This therapy was a major factor in my getting the (*ahem*) upper hand on arthritis.

Rather than write an entire brief on the benefits & use, I'll just ask you about the nature of your dad's problem: where in the back? What kind of pain (aching, throbbing, piercing, crushing, etc)? Who recommended hot-&-cold? How long has he been suffering? How did he injure himself? What else has been tried (& hasn't worked)?

Meaningful suggestions must wait for more detailed data.

 

[cameronjames]

Re:

Hey friends can someone tell me what is heat and cold therapy. My father is suffering from a severe back pain and is really very depressed due to that. Someone told me to give him the heat and cold therapy which will help him in getting recovered soon from this problem of back pain. I really don’t know what is it and how does it work so please give me your suggestions on it.

The heat and cold therapy is used in the cases of back pain problem. I came across this therapy last year when my uncle was recommended for it. We gathered a lot of details from a website for back pain treatment where we found the complete and detailed information about heat and cold therapy. I will suggest you to go through this link and I am sure you will get all the desired answers for your questions.