Low Back Pain: An Ice
Pack or the Hot Tub?
Many
patients perform some self-care when they first hurt their lower
back, hoping this will keep them out of a doctor’s office. While
home remedies can sometimes make the pain go away, sometimes they
don’t. It just depends on what you try. When the back is first
hurt, it’s often a sprain/strain type of injury with accompanying
muscle spasm.
When
a nerve in the low back becomes pinched or irritated, the body will
protect the delicate nerves by keeping you from moving and risking
further nerve injury. The easiest way for the body to do this is to
cause the back muscles to spasm in the injured area.
Muscle
pain can be quite severe and heat can sometimes soothe the pain. For
this reason, many patients take to the heating pad or to the hot tub
to try and get some relief. This should be avoided in an acute injury
because inflammation is present. With inflammation, there is
increased heat and the additional heat you provide is like adding
gasoline to a fire. The results are usually not good.
A
better choice with an acute injury is to ice the area, but this also
needs to be done with some caution. The simplest ice pack is ice
cubes placed in a plastic bag. While effective, you can cause a
frostbite injury if you leave the pack on for too long. When you
first ice the area, you will go through several phases before some
pain relief is achieved. At first, the pack will feel cold. The next
phase is a burning sensation and the ice will almost feel hot. This
is followed by an aching or throbbing sensation. Just before the area
is numbed, a very sharp pain will be experienced followed by the
relief you desire. It can take between five to ten minutes to go
through all of the phases.
Once
numbness is achieved (in about 15 minutes), the pack should be removed. You should most
definitely not fall asleep while the pack is on.
Of course, a visit to your chiropractor to get your spine checked is always a good idea.
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