Spinal Care Clinic's Use of Hot/Cold Therapy

In office, we have access to a variety 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 alleviates 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 decreases swelling and bleeding and nerve ending conduction of pain impulses.
• Deep tissue cooling with ice diminishes 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 preferred therapy for you and may not be used.

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

Thermotherapy (Heat Therapy)

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

• Heat is generally sedating because of its nature to lower the transmission of pain signals and ease tense muscles.
• Heat enlarges blood vessels around a painful area, increasing oxygen and nutrient flow to the muscles which helps heal damaged tissue.
• Heat also decreases stiffness and increases flexibility which is extremely important in a healthy back to help you regain your quality of life.

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

Purpose: Combining cryotherapy and thermotherapy is generally preferred. This allows stimulation of blood flow by drawing 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 known as the Hunting’s Effect whereby too long an ice session reflexively pushes the blood back into the inflamed area resulting in more pain. Hunting’s Effect is profitable for the body when you may find yourself in trouble of severe cold, but not when trying to regulate pain and inflammation. Heat calms muscles and joints and cold drives out swelling. A combination of the two is best.

Purpose: Often this hot/cold/hot therapy is applied along with electrical stimulation which is extremely effective for your pain relief. This produces stimulation of blood flow by drawing blood into an irritated and painful area with heat and driving 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.