What Is Best For Arthritis Pain Heat Or Ice

Once inflammation has gone down heat can be used to ease stiffness.

What is best for arthritis pain heat or ice.

Use heating pads for no more than 20 minutes at a time. You can experiment with. 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. 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.

Heat loosens up muscles increases flexibility and increases circulation. Sometimes deep penetrating heat is the best thing to reduce your arthritis pain. Heat wins for arthritis and injuries that linger more than six weeks. Heat boosts the flow of blood and nutrients to an area of the body.

Patients with more chronic osteoarthritis usually feel better with heat says rheumatologist linda mileti md. Before and after physical activity what about prior to exercise activity. 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. 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.

Heat treatments can include taking a long warm shower or bath in the morning to help ease stiffness and using an electric. Ice ice packs and other cold therapies can help reduce knee pain and muscle spasms. 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. Ice is preferred but heat wraps can halt neck spasms that contribute to headache.

Be careful not to burn yourself. Conventional medical wisdom suggests using ice to treat an acute injury or pain that occurs after activity. Heat and cold treatments can help relieve arthritis pain and inflammation. But for acute gout flares she favors ice.

Apply heat before your mall trip and cold after you return home.