Complaints & connections · borters.ch
Two simple means with clear limits — the skin is the limit, not the feeling.
Also known as: heat therapy · cold therapy · cryotherapy · compress · sauna · ice bath
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
Heat relaxes muscles and makes tissue more stretchable; it is used for a tense neck, back and period pain, mostly 15 to 20 minutes. Cold dampens pain and is used on a fresh bruise, swelling and inflammation, mostly 10 to 20 minutes with a cloth in between — never straight on the skin, and not where sensation is disturbed. What trials measured is mainly pain shortly afterwards; over longer periods little is shown. Neither applies to an open wound, a nerve disorder with numbness, or badly reduced circulation. On the ice bath and the sauna there are many small trials with varying results; what is certain is that the strain on the circulation is real.
A cold pack never goes straight on the skin and never for more than about 20 minutes at a stretch. Where sensation is disturbed — nerve damage, after anaesthesia, poor circulation — the damage is not felt while it happens.