Team ICE or HEAT?

What’s the most common thing people tell us they do when they have muscle and/or joint pain or injury? Heating pad. 🔥

What’s our best recommendation in most of those scenarios? Ice. 🧊

We know the heat feels good in the moment. It can help relax muscles, but that’s not the only thing it affects. Heat dilates, or widening, the blood vessels, allowing more blood flow, but that also can increase inflammation in the area, which can cause even more pain.

What does ice do? The exact opposite. Ice constricts the blood vessels and reduces swelling and pain; this is the therapy of choice immediately following an injury and is preferred over heat for the first six weeks.

We recommend icing after an adjustment to help reduce inflammation and stabilize the joint. 

Ice for 10 minutes, then 50 minutes off before icing again. Repeat as needed.

For those areas that are tight and heat sounds like it would be the answer, rather than a heating pad in a focused area, we love a good Epsom salt bath! 🛁