Vaughan, ON – Video Explains When to Use Ice vs When to Use Heat to Relieve Back Pain
Hey it’s Dr. Walter here from Back To Health Chiropractic Centre, right here in the beautiful city of Vaughan. Thanks for coming to this video, whether you are on live or watching it later on, on this Facebook post. I’m the author who wrote this book Back to Health by Choice, How to Relieve Pain, Conquer Stress, and Supercharge Your Health the Chiropractic Way, and am working on a new book now for people that have back pain, people that are struggling with back pain.
I have several videos up there on YouTube that gives people with back pain relief tips, and I am going to give you two tips today on how to relieve back pain at home and one of the things that I realize is that in our community of Vaughan, there’re a lot of people out there that are struggling with back pain. They may have tried other resources, they may have tried other therapies, maybe even drugs, possibly have tried surgery or on their road to surgery or had surgical consultations and there’s a big impact on how their back pain is affecting them and my concern is that they are not just getting the answers or solutions that are suitable for them.
So I want to reach out to people in our community and give the answers or solutions to back pain that has been working for our patients in the last 16 years here at Back To Health Chiropractic Center. And I want to put all of those resources and tips and strategies and theories of back pain and how to prevent and deal with back pain in this book that I am calling Back Pain Resource Guide. And I’ve been getting questions from a lot of people out there in our community so what I am asking you today is to ask me your number one, your biggest question about back pain, no question is too silly.
It could be anything and there’s a link on this video right here on this post just click on that link. There’s a little form where you can actually add your question there and your response to your question and then click submit and in exchange for your effort and for your input and me writing this book am going to give you, one of the first people that has access to a free copy of Back Pain Resource Guide when it comes out, just to say thank you for your contribution for me helping write this book.
So, if you have a question make sure you click on this link that you see on this post and then give me your questions so I can include the answers and questions in the book that I writing. So before you go on this video I want to give you a tip when it comes to getting relief from back pain at home. One of the most common questions I get asked when it comes to relieving back pain is when do I use ice and when do I use heat? And I could tell you, for all the new patients that come into my office a lot of them ask me that question and most people get it wrong and they are trying all kinds of different things and they are hearing advice from all different people but I want to level the record straight when it comes to when to use ice and when to use heat.
I will tell you what I tell my practice members and patients that has back pain. So let me give you some examples here. This is an example of an ice pack. I just took this out of the freezer right now we have a little freezer in our office and this particular gel pack can be use for ice, ice pack when it’s frozen or can be used for heat by heating up in the microwave or in boiling water. So the best time to use ice is during an acute injury, we have an acute injury, an acute back pain, what does an acute injury means that means a brand new back incidence or a brand new back pain that just happened and up to 3 days. The reason why is you want to have a strategy to cope with that pain naturally and ice is a very good strategy to put on the injured area of your back to help numb the pain, right. It will reduce the inflammation a bit it will cool the area down. But the key thing is to help you cope with the pain and help numb the pain for several days so the acuteness can come down and you can get functional again.
So I recommend ice in the first, second and third day possibly even up to the first seven days but not past seven days. For sure in the first three days but not past seven days. You want to use ice during an acute immediate injury or a flare up. If you had back pain for a long time and you had an acute flare up then you use ice again during that flare up. You don’t want to use ice if you had back pain for a chronic time, so, three months, six months, a year, two years and beyond, it’s a chronic back pain. You don’t want to use ice for chronic back pain. The reason why is there is an inflammatory process that’s occurring when you have an injury and there is an acute inflammation and chronic inflammation, but inflammation even though it’s painful and causes swelling and redness and decrease in function.
Inflammation is the body’s way for you to heal the injury, the injured tissues, so, in the first few days inflammation is important but you want to cope with the pain so it is good. Later on when back pain becomes chronic, hopefully it doesn’t but when it becomes chronic you need an inflammatory process to help induce that healing process in the body. So you don’t want to minimize inflammation with ice, and how does ice minimize inflammation? Well it decreases the blood flow to area and blood brings the immune cells that trigger inflammation in the body. So Ice is good for the first three days and not during chronic back pain episode. The other scenario is heat. This is an example of a heating pack. Now this is an electric heating pack. I really like this because it gives off a moist type of heat and moist heat is the best for your body.
There are other types of heating packs. There is a water bottle and of course you can use one of these gel packs when they are heated up. So when do you use heat? First of all don’t use heat in an immediate injury, an acute injury or an acute flare up because it’s just not going to feel comfortable on inflamed tissues So you want to use heat after seven days and certainly if you have a back problem that has been existing more than three months, six months and definitely beyond a year, so chronic back pain. Why is heat good for chronic back pain, for back pain that has been persisting for a long time? Because heat helps bring blood to the area, helps bring healing chemicals to the area, and helps the blood vessels dilate and flush out any toxins any noxious toxins from the inflammatory process that are triggering the nerves and getting them pain sensitive. So that’s number one. And also it relaxes muscles, makes it feel good, and decreases muscle tension. So it’s a good way to cope with chronic aching back pain that has been around for six months, a year, or more.
Now when you are using ice or heat, there are several protocols to follow. Number one, and this is for both, so number one, don’t just put a cold ice pack on your skin and don’t you put a hot pack on your skin. Wrap it around with a towel. It could be a moistened face towel, it could be a paper towel moistened is fine and dry is okay too, to protect your skin. that’s number one. Number two, I usually tell people to put an ice pack on for about 5 minutes, 5 minutes is usually enough and for heat I tell people to put on for about 10 minutes so you want to set a time limit. 5 minutes for ice and 10 minutes for heat and don’t repeat it every 10 to 20 minutes. Wait about an hour and then repeat it again if necessary every hour.
So these are two tips on how to cope with back pain at home. There is ice for acute injuries and heating pack for the chronic aching back that has been around for a long time. okay. So hope you find that useful. Give it a try if you have a sore back, whether it’s acute or chronic and you will see that they will relieve you.
Now, thank you guys for watching. If you have a question about back pain, don’t leave it in the comments below. Click on that link on this post and leave your question about back pain and I will make sure it is answered in the new book that I’m writing which is to be called Back Pain Resource Guide and then once you click on that link make sure you put your email because when this book is ready, I will email you a copy of the book. So thank you again for watching, I am looking forward to talking to you guys soon.
