Most injuries cause your body to react with inflammation and swelling. Ice is used to cool down the injured joint or tissue and reduce swelling. By contrast, heat would cause an opposite and undesired reaction. Heat treatment is more appropriate to use during recovery as you rehab back to full health.
Ice helps reduce inflammation and numb pain, whereas heat helps relax muscles and stiff joints. While heat helps improve circulation and blood flow, ice reduces blood flow thereby reducing inflammation and swelling.
“Ice is a great choice for the first 72 hours after an injury because it helps reduce swelling, which causes pain. Heat, on the other hand, helps soothe stiff joints and relax muscles. However, neither option should be used for more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time.”
Heat Therapy
If you use heat on a swollen area, it can increase inflammation. This will prevent your injury from healing. Moist heat, like hot showers, saunas, steam baths, hot baths, or just warm damp towels, can help loosen tight muscles.
Using a cold compress or ice pack on a strained muscle can decrease inflammation and numb pain in the area. Icing is effective at reducing pain and swelling because the cold constricts blood vessels and decreases circulation to the area.
Start by applying ice for 15 to 20 minutes. Allow 30 to 40 minutes between each time you ice your injury. How long to ice an injury depends on when you were injured and the severity of the injury. If swelling and inflammation last more than 48 hours, you may have a more serious injury.
Load up on anti-inflammatory foods
Some of the best sources of omega-3s are cold water fish, such as salmon and tuna, and tofu, walnuts, flax seeds and soybeans. Other anti-inflammatory foods include grapes, celery, blueberries, garlic, olive oil, tea and some spices (ginger, rosemary and turmeric).
Inflammation — Heat and humidity can affect the level of synovial fluid, which is the fluid that lubricates the joints. This can lead to inflammation within the joints. Heat and humidity can also increase overall levels of inflammation in the body, which can increase pain.
After an acute injury, ice should be used to minimize swelling for the first two to three days. After this period, heat can be used to increase blood flow and assist the natural healing process. Applying heat too early may cause additional swelling by increasing blood flow to the injury.
Heat opens blood vessels, which can assist the healing process and alleviate some of your pain. Additionally, some arthritis pain from stiff joints can benefit from heat as blood flow increases.
Descriptions. Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to treat mild to moderate pain, and helps to relieve symptoms of arthritis (osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, or juvenile arthritis), such as inflammation, swelling, stiffness, and joint pain.
In conclusion, cold and heat therapies are both effective for enhancing muscle recovery and reducing muscle damage with heat being superior immediately after exercise and cold at 24 hours after exercise. Cold is superior for pain relief immediately after exercise and at 24 hours.
Prostaglandin mediated inflammations can be aggravated by cold, because it stimulates the prostaglandin synthesis; acute exsudative inflammatory processes are most often aggravated by heat.
Keeping ice on an injury for too long — more than 20 minutes — can cause tissue damage and injure areas of poor circulation.
Icing an injury has been conventional wisdom for a long time. While it can help reduce pain and inflammation, ice doesn't speed up healing.
Heat therapy will usually ease the muscle stiffness after the inflammation resolves. But heat and ice can be used together in an alternating pattern to create a “pumping” action in the circulatory system by restricting circulation to reduce swelling and then increasing circulation to a particular area.
Alternating Heat and Cold Therapy
Removing the cold causes the veins to expand, increasing circulation. Heat therapy can be applied to assist circulation and the incoming flow of nutrients that can heal the injured tissues.
Heat dilates, or widens blood vessels, allowing more inflammation to flow to an injured or painful area.
When you have the flu, a common cold, a virus or a bacterial infection, your immune system jumps into action. It reacts by releasing white blood cells to fight off the infection. The reaction causes inflammation, which can leave your muscles feeling achy.
Key takeaways: Ice and heat therapy can both be effective treatment options for muscle aches and pains. Generally, ice is better for acute or newer injuries, while heat is better for chronic or long-term pain.
1. Omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fatty acids , which are abundant in fatty fish such as salmon or tuna, are among the most potent anti-inflammatory supplements. These supplements may help fight several types of inflammation, including vascular inflammation.
Active principles in plant-based foods, especially staple fruits, such as bananas and plantains, possess inter-related anti-inflammatory, anti-apoptotic, antioxidative, and neuromodulatory activities.
COMPRESSION. A compression bandage, sometimes called elastic bandages or static or elastic bandages, can also help manage swelling. For example, you can apply an elastic bandage to reduce ankle swelling if you roll or sprain your ankle. Compression bandages work by restricting blood flow to the injured tissue.