Cold Treatments — Benefits for Pain Management

Photo by: Bigstockphoto
Photo by: Bigstockphoto

A muscle—when pulled or strained—can become swollen and inflamed. Pulled muscles could damage tissues and become extremely painful. One of the most common treatments for strained or pulled muscles is cold treatment.

Cold treatments are best for drugless pain management. There may be different types of cold treatments but the concept remains the same — apply cold compress to the injured muscle to heal and soothe inflammation. It’s a cheap and effective solution to healing any symptom associated with muscle pain such as bruises, tendinitis, as well as minor strains and sprains.

Athletes often turn to ice baths and cryotherapy treatments to heal injuries and treat freshly pulled muscles. However, icing or cold treatment should not be viewed as a cure-all treatment for muscle pain. Think of it as first-aid treatment. Icing is great for treating traumatized or inflamed tissues; it can even assist in recovery from repetitive muscle strains like iliotibial band syndrome.

Benefits of Icing

Icing Is Analgesic

Although it’s drugless, icing works the same way as your garden variety ibuprofen analgesic from the local drugstore! Of course, icing doesn’t really fix the problem. However, it’s perfect for soothing chronic pains because it numbs the inflamed tissues and works just as well as other over-the-counter pain relievers.

Painless Treatment for Fresh Injuries

If you strained your ligaments/muscles and there is significant bruising, icing is your best bet to treat your fresh injuries. Every time muscle tissues are damaged or inflamed, they become sensitive to the touch and excruciatingly painful, depending on the seriousness of the injury; topical creams/heat treatments may only aggravate the pain.

Fresh injuries should never be treated with hot compress as heat increases blood circulation, triggering activity in the immune system. This results in more pain and swelling. Through icing, the area is momentarily numbed. This gives the body time to reduce the swelling and soothe the injured muscles.

Treats Chronically Overused Muscles

Cold treatments help alleviate tissue fatigue pain and injuries including: carpal tunnel syndrome, tennis elbow, supraspinatus tendinitis, iliotibial band syndrome, patellofemoral pain syndrome, shin splints, and plantar fasciitis. Unlike heat treatments, cold treatments soothe the overused muscles, helping the affected area recover quickly without drugs!

Useful for Arthritic Pain

Suffering from arthritis? Rather than numbing the pain with several types of pain relievers, why not turn to natural treatments like icing? It’s just as effective and it even helps treat painful types of arthritic pain including rheumatoid and ankylosing spondylitis!

Less Pain

Certain types of cold treatments go beyond the usual ice packs and ice baths. Specialized cryotherapy treatments are customized to cover a wider range of pain and cut down pain during the recovery process. Such cold treatments are best for injured individuals who are looking to bounce back quicker from their injuries and those who are going through physical therapy to recover.

Faster Recovery Time

We’ve saved the best for last! All types of cold treatments facilitate faster healing and recovery time from surgeries and injuries. The faster the recovery time, the sooner you can get back on your feet and improve the quality of your life.