Georgetown Chiropractic Care: Hot/Cold Therapy

In office, we have the ability to use an array of therapies to help your spine heal. Depending on your symptom, one or more of the following may be recommended:

Cryotherapy (Cold Therapy)

Purpose: Cold therapy stimulates vasoconstriction, the narrowing of blood vessels to slow down blood circulation in an area.

• Cold therapy decreases pain and swelling after an injury.
• It is the therapy of choice for spinal pain within the first 72 hours.
• Cold decreases the flow of fluid into tissues and stunts the chemicals that inflame and cause pain.
• Cold reduces swelling and bleeding and nerve ending conduction of pain impulses.
• Deep tissue cooling with ice reduces muscle spasm by lowering muscle contraction.

Note: If you have circulation issues, can’t feel cold or are allergic to cold, ice may not be the recommended therapy for you and may not be used.

Application: A towel is always placed between you and the cold pack. Since swelling and pain often accompany acute injury in the first 72 hours after an injury, ice only may be applied. Ice reduces swelling and numbs the pain in short spurts like 10 minutes at a time.

Thermotherapy (Heat Therapy)

Purpose: Heat therapy stimulates vasodilation, the enlarging of blood vessels to bring more blood to an area.

• Heat is generally sedating due to its nature to decrease the transmission of pain signals and calm tense muscles.
• Heat enlarges blood vessels around a painful area, adding oxygen and nutrient flow to the muscles which helps heal damaged tissue.
• Heat also reduces stiffness and increases flexibility which is very important in a healthy back to assist you in taking back your quality of life.

Application: In office, hot packs may be used on your spine with a towel around them for 10 to 30 minutes.

Purpose: Combining cryotherapy and thermotherapy is often preferred. This allows stimulation of blood flow by bringing blood into a swollen and painful area with heat and driving out the blood with an ice pack application.

Application: For nearly all of the patients coming to our office, a 10 minute hot/10 minute cold/10 minute hot routine is used. This routine is recognized as the Hunting’s Effect whereby too long an ice session reflexively forces the blood back into the swollen area resulting in more pain. Hunting’s Effect is profitable for the body when you may find yourself in danger of severe cold, but not when attempting to control pain and swelling. Heat sedates muscles and joints and cold pushes out inflammation. A balance of the two is best.

Purpose: Often this hot/cold/hot therapy is used along with electrical stimulation which is extremely effective for your pain management. This allows stimulation of blood flow by bringing blood into a swollen and painful area with heat and pushing out the blood with ice pack application and nerve pain sedation with electrotherapy.

Application: Generally each modality with cryotherapy or thermotherapy is 10 minutes each but may change depending on your condition.