What Is Best For Arthritis Pain Heat Or Ice

Heat and cold treatments can help relieve arthritis pain and inflammation.

What is best for arthritis pain heat or ice.

Before and after physical activity what about prior to exercise activity. The thermotex infrared heating pad tts platinum model is the most popular although there are other thermotex therapy systems available. Use heating pads for no more than 20 minutes at a time. Once inflammation has gone down heat can be used to ease stiffness.

You can experiment with. Patients with more chronic osteoarthritis usually feel better with heat says rheumatologist linda mileti md. Heat loosens up muscles increases flexibility and increases circulation. Conventional medical wisdom suggests using ice to treat an acute injury or pain that occurs after activity.

Heat treatments can include taking a long warm shower or bath in the morning to help ease stiffness and using an electric. Be careful not to burn yourself. 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. Sometimes deep penetrating heat is the best thing to reduce your arthritis pain.

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. But for acute gout flares she favors ice. Apply heat before your mall trip and cold after you return home. Some patients prefer cold therapy to moist heat for arthritis pain while others tell of having the best relief when they alternate the sessions with moist heat and ice.

Heat wins for arthritis and injuries that linger more than six weeks. 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. Cold slows blood flow reducing swelling and.

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.