Should I Apply Ice Or Heat To My Injury?

One of the most common sports-medicine questions we receive at DT&R is whether to chill out orwarm up an injury. Both heat and ice can boost healing by manipulating blood flow. Ice restricts blood flow, which reduces inflammation and pain.Heat increases circulation, which boosts the supply of oxygen to the site, accelerating the removal of waste products. 

The trick is knowing when to use each.      

     
Both heat and ice both shock the body into breaking the pain-spasm cycle. Heat causes the body to circulate more blood to the area in order to cool it down. That brings more oxygen and nutrients, and removes waste products, which help heal the tissue. Cold is similar-the body sends more blood to the area to warm it up and promote healing.

So Which Is Best?

If both heat and ice do the same thing, which is better to treat your pain? There are really no hard and fast rules, but I typically have our patients at Dynamic do the following:

1. When an injury first occurs, use ice first. This is true whether the injury is acute (caused by some trauma like lifting something heavy or sitting too long) or subacute (a flare-up of a chronic condition, like sciatica). It's also important to use ice fast. You need to get ice to the injury within 5 minutes to get the best effect. If you're not at home and don't have ice handy, head to the 7-11 and buy a bag of ice. Begin treatment immediately. Apply ice for the first 48-72 hours. Use it for 20 minutes, then take it off for 20. Repeat as often as you can.

2. After 48-72 hours, when you feel the swelling has gown down and the pain-spasm cycle is broken, you can begin stretching the injured muscle with the appropriate exercises. At this point, choosing ice or heat is really up to you. Most people like heat before they exercise and ice after. Either way, you're getting red blood cells to the area to promote healthy healing.

3. For a really advanced treatment plan, I recommend a contrast bath. Try 20 minutes of heat followed immediately by 20 minutes of ice. Repeat three times. The contrast really shocks the body and gets it out of the pain-spasm cycle.

How To Make Your Own Ice Bag:

All you need is a ziplock freezer bag, rubbing alcohol and water.

Instructions:

1. Take a ziplock freezer bag, and add 1 1/2 cups of water to 1/2 cup of rubbing alcohol.
2. Seal up the bag.
3. Put the bag in the freezer.

Thanks to the rubbing alcohol, the water won't freeze hard, so you'll be able to mold the bag onto your noggin or other miscellaneous body part  next time you take a spill.

And, incidentally, you can buy a bottle of rubbing alcohol at the dollar store for $1.

Have children? Try adding food colouring or sparkles into the mix!