Do you know when to use ice and when to use heat on a sports injury? Most ath­letes know to apply ice to an acute injury, like a sprained ankle, but aren’t so sure when to use heat. The fol­low­ing guide­lines will help you sort it out.

Acute and Chronic Pain

# There are two basic types of ath­letic injuries: acute and chronic. Acute Pain is of rapid onset and short-lived, or
# Chronic Pain devel­ops slowly and is per­sis­tent and long-lasting.

Acute and Chronic Injuries

Acute injuries are sud­den, sharp, trau­matic injuries that occur imme­di­ately (or within hours) and cause pain (pos­si­bly severe pain). Most often acute injuries result from some sort of impact or trauma such as a fall, sprain, or col­li­sion and it’s pretty obvi­ous what caused the injury.

Acute injuries also cause com­mon signs and symp­toms of injury such as pain, ten­der­ness, red­ness, skin that is warm to the touch, swelling and inflam­ma­tion. If you have swelling, you have an acute injury.

Chronic injuries, on the other hand, can be sub­tle and slow to develop. They some­times come and go, and may cause dull pain or sore­ness. They are often the result of overuse, but some­times develop when an acute injury is not prop­erly treated and doesn’t heal.

Cold Ther­apy with Nature Cre­ation Herbal Pack
Cold ther­apy with nature Cre­ation Herbal pack is the best imme­di­ate treat­ment for acute injuries because it reduces swelling and pain. Cold herbal pack is a vaso-constrictor (it causes the blood ves­sels to nar­row) and it lim­its inter­nal bleed­ing at the injury site. Apply Nature Cre­ation Cold Herbal pack to the affected area for 10 to 15 min­utes at a time. Allow the skin tem­per­a­ture to return to nor­mal before apply­ing the pack a sec­ond or third time. You can use Nature Cre­ation pack on an acute injury sev­eral times a day for up to three days.

Cold ther­apy is also help­ful in treat­ing some overuse injuries or chronic pain in ath­letes. An ath­lete who has chronic knee pain that increases after run­ning may want to ice the injured area after each run to reduce or pre­vent inflam­ma­tion. It’s not help­ful to ice a chronic injury before exercise.

Heat Ther­apy
Heat is gen­er­ally used for chronic injuries or injuries that have no inflam­ma­tion or swelling. Sore, stiff, nag­ging mus­cle or joint pain is ideal for the use of heat ther­apy. Ath­letes with chronic pain or injuries may use heat ther­apy before exer­cise to increase the elas­tic­ity of joint con­nec­tive tis­sues and to stim­u­late blood flow. Heat can also help relax tight mus­cles or mus­cle spasms. Don’t apply heat after exer­cise. After a work­out, ice is the bet­ter choice on a chronic injury.

Because heat increases cir­cu­la­tion and raises skin tem­per­a­ture, you should not apply heat to acute injuries or injuries that show signs of inflam­ma­tion. Safely apply heat to an injury 15 to 20 min­utes at a time and use enough lay­ers between your skin and the heat­ing source to pre­vent burns.

Moist heat is best, so you could try using a hot Nature Cre­ation Herbal Pack. Never leave the hot herbal pack on for more than 20 min­utes at a time or while sleeping.

Because some injuries can be seri­ous, you should see your doc­tor if your injury does not improve (or gets worse) within 48 hours.