San Jose Chiropractic Care: Hot/Cold Therapy

In office, we have access to an array of therapies to help your spine heal. Depending on your condition, 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 reduces pain and swelling after an injury.
• It is the preferred therapy for spinal pain within the first 72 hours.
• Cold reduces the flow of fluid into tissues and slows the chemicals that inflame and cause pain.
• Cold decreases swelling and bleeding and nerve ending conduction of pain impulses.
• Deep tissue cooling with ice reduces muscle spasm by lessening muscle contraction.

Note: If you have circulation problems, can’t feel cold or are allergic to cold, ice may not be the preferred therapy for you and may not be applied.

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

Thermotherapy (Heat Therapy)

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

• Heat is generally sedating due to its nature to decrease the transmission of pain signals and relax tense muscles.
• Heat opens 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 very important in a healthy back to assist you in taking back your quality of life.

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

Purpose: Combining cryotherapy and thermotherapy is often recommended. This allows stimulation of blood flow by drawing blood into a swollen and painful area with heat and pushing 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 recognized as the Hunting’s Effect whereby too long an ice session reflexively pushes the blood back into the swollen area resulting in more pain. Hunting’s Effect is profitable for the body when you may find yourself in danger of severe cold, but not when attempting to regulate pain and swelling. Heat sedates muscles and joints and cold pushes out swelling. A balance of the two is best.

Purpose: Often this hot/cold/hot therapy is applied along with electrical stimulation which is doubly-effective for your pain management. 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: Typically each modality with cryotherapy or thermotherapy is 10 minutes each but may change depending on your condition.