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What are Hot and Cold Packs?
What are Hot and Cold Packs?
Hot and/or cold packs are exactly what they sound like. Hot packs provide warmth and comfort while cold packs allow for short term numbness. Both type of therapies are easily accessible to the public and are inexpensive. They are also convenient considering they are easily mobile from a clinical setting to a patient's home, for example.
*Image on the left shows an electric heating pad.
How can they help with pain?
How can they help with pain?
A study was conducted on participants who were over the age of 18 and had lower back pain. Randomized and non-randomized clinical trials were set, a total of 9 clinical trials with over 1000 participants, which compared the effects of hot to cold to a placebo. Two of the trials concluded with significant decrease in pain after 5 days with heat wraps. Another trial also resulted with decreased pain with a heated blanket. One more trial added exercise along with the heat wrap and found significant reductions in pain even after 7 days.
Overall, these studies concluded that there is insufficient evidence to evaluate the effects of cold therapy for low-back pain. (French, 2006)
While evidence shows that medication can be the best reliever of pain, physical therapy modalities are available to help even more.
Another study was conducted to look at the relations between cold/hot packs along with medication, specifically ibuprofen (Garra, 2010). Patients over the age of 18 were given 400mg of ibuprofen and randomized into two groups, one received hot packs the other cold. Pain severity was collected before and after application.
The study concluded that neither hot or cold packs worked better than the other, however, they both did show mild improvement in the severity of pain (Garra, 2010). Patients and practitioners are encouraged to be the ones to choose between the two.
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