What Is Best For Arthritis Pain Heat Or Ice

Heat wins for arthritis and injuries that linger more than six weeks.

What is best for arthritis pain heat or ice.

Heat boosts the flow of blood and nutrients to an area of the body. Sometimes deep penetrating heat is the best thing to reduce your arthritis pain. You can experiment with. Heat treatments can include taking a long warm shower or bath in the morning to help ease stiffness and using an electric.

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. Cold slows blood flow reducing swelling and. Heat loosens up muscles increases flexibility and increases circulation. Apply heat before your mall trip and cold after you return home.

The thermotex infrared heating pad tts platinum model is the most popular although there are other thermotex therapy systems available. Be careful not to burn yourself. 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.

Use heating pads for no more than 20 minutes at a time. 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. Ice is preferred but heat wraps can halt neck spasms that contribute to headache. Heat and cold treatments can help relieve arthritis pain and inflammation.

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. 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. But for acute gout flares she favors ice. Conventional medical wisdom suggests using ice to treat an acute injury or pain that occurs after activity.

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