When is heat needed for on going pain and when is cold? What is the difference
In: Biology
I do pain research and the good old RICE acronym isn’t as useful as we used to think
Here are my recommendations:
Heat = things are stiff and sore. Some evidence it might speed up healing very slightly but not enough evidence that I’d confidently say it makes you heal faster. But it might
Ice = numbs the area. Some evidence it might actually slow down healing. The evidence here is a little stronger than the evidence in favour of heat but not necessarily enough evidence to say you should never use ice
So my general rule is: if you’re tolerating the pain well, heat is your best bet. If you are suffering and your number one priority is to lessen the pain temporarily, that’s when I’d use ice
So when I see someone with a broken arm or sprained ankle that just happened a few minutes ago I don’t hit them with a “WeLl AcKsHuAlLy you should use heat”. The priority in the moment is to minimize the agony.
So in your case: I’d go with heat. And it seems like a gym injury so not just heat but also continuing to use the muscle just with less weight, less range of motion, slower, anything like that. Then work your way back up gradually as you start to feel better and you should be good as new
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