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Back Pain: Ice vs Heat

Greeting readers! For the next couple weeks, I will post one daily tip that might help you treat your acute or chronic  back pain. My goal is to keep it short and to the point, with simple explanations.

Ice Or Heat For Back Pain?

Tip: Use a Cold Pack/Ice Pack

I get this question all the time: should I use ice or heat?

Ice is a natural anti-inflammatory which will help decrease your pain by decreasing inflammation to the injured tissue.

Why not heat? While heat can be soothing -ish at first and often feels good while on, it only maintains inflammation, and therefore pain, around injured tissue.

Place an ice pack/ frozen gel pack inside a pillow case and applying it to the painful area for 15-20 minutes will help alleviate pain.

​Repeat every hour as needed. Using ice at end of a hard day can really help take your pain a few notches down.
With icing, redness is common but should go away after 10 minutes. If it remains and you experience hives, itching or welts, ice is not for you.

 If you plan on icing late in evening, ice right before bed, but do not sleep on an ice pack. You will wake up with a ice burn and can severely and permanently affect the area treated if left on for > 30minutes.

Of course this tip is valid for all other part of the body, not just your back.


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3 thoughts on “Back Pain: Ice vs Heat”

  1. Lower back pain or pain in the lumbar region is often associated with kidney problems. I am no expert but at the slight presence of any inconvenience, I try to drown it by drinking lots of water. I heard from a doctor that we are actually supposed to drink eight glasses of fruit or vegetable juice in one day, not really just water. That’s the only chance for us to get the daily nutrient requirement. But if we have a urinary tract infection, then that would be the time the concept of drinking eight glasses of water may apply.

    • Lumbar pain has a multitude of possible origin. if it arise from kidney , there is an easy test a trained professional can do to rule the likely origin from kidneys, in addition to a thorough subjective and objective exams. In regards to water, we tend to not drink enough for sure. I think 8 glasses of fruit juice a day is way excessive when you consider the amount of sugar. Pure cranberry juice (unsweetened) is the reference when it comes to UTI ( urinary tract infection)

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