Ice Vs Heat

Ice vs heat:

We DO NOT recommend the use of heat on your injury.

There is always a risk with heat that you can damage the skin over the injury and make further treatment difficult. Heat also tends to create more swelling of the area, this creates more pain and limits your mobility. Heat makes the area more sensitive, giving you a feeling of more pain.

We recommend the use of ICE on your injury.

We do this for several reasons.

When an injury is new it tends to bleed, this will lead to inflammation, putting ice on the area is thought to reduce the amount of bleeding and limit the amount of damage caused by the inflammation.

Ice is also a very good painkiller. The use of ice on an area will reduce the pain and discomfort that you feel.

It is recommended that an area that has been injured is moved as soon as possible after injury if it is safe to do so , the use of ice will help this.

Ice has been shown to have an effect on the area surrounding an injury by reducing muscle spasm.

The use of ice reduces the pain, reduces muscle spasm, reduces the amount of swelling and allows you to move the area sooner, allowing the area to recover faster and get you moving again.

The Safe Use of Ice.

Ice should never be applied directly to the skin. This could case “an ice burn” basically frost bite.

Ice should not be placed directly over a nerve as this could cause injury.

You should place a damp thin cloth between the skin and your ice. A damp tea towel or “J Cloth” is ideal.

Your ice should be in small chunks not a solid block, a bag of frozen peas is just about ideal ! Use one large or two smaller bags to thoroughly cover the area.

Crushed ice placed in a thick walled polythene bag also works well.

The ICE does not need to be as cold as possible, if the surface of the ice is slightly damp indicating the ice is melting within a few seconds of taking it out of the freezer is ideal, very cold ice such as from a very cold commercial freezer is TOO COLD and will cause damage to your skin.

The ice needs to be “pressed” against the damaged area, so you can wrap a towel around the area to compress the bag of ice against your skin.

Procedure

• Take your ice from the freezer and give it a few minutes, bash it about so that the peas break up and allow the bag to mould.
• Place your damp cloth on the skin followed by your bag if ice.

• Now wrap all of this or cover with a large towel to stop the room temperature melting the ice.


• Look at the clock, you need your ice on for between 10 and 20 minutes. If you use the ice for too short a time you will not get the benefit. If you use the ice for too long you can cause damage.

By the end of your ice session the area will probably be very red, this is normal, the skin will feel cold ! But should not be numb.
After you remove the ice you can put the bag back in the freezer, ready for the next use.

• Now it is advisable to gentle move the effected area.

• Start with very small movements and gradually increase the range, but do so very gently as the area will not be as painful and you do not wish to do more damage.

It is thought that your ability to move the damaged area after the ice is one of the best effects, it is thought to allow the area to keep flexible, prevents the formation of scar tissue and stimulate the tissue to grow in the correct way.

The area will warm over the next 15-30 minutes.

• You can repeat the ice every 2 hours.

YOU MUST NOT use ice just so that you can carry on, you will do more damage.

Activity after ice should be very gentle and controlled.

Some tissues such as tendons and ligaments recover very slowly – do not try and rush.

If your condition would benefit from the use of heat we will let you know this.

As a rule always use ice initially, never heat. 

After the injury has been professionally assessed, you can use heat if advised to do so.

If you have any concerns please ring and get advice BEFORE YOU USE ICE.

Patients with Reynaud's or Rheumatoid disease should not use ICE.