Patients often turn to heat therapy for relief from chronic pain, which is a great option to help with injuries or on-going pain from arthritis or other health-related pain issues. And, heat therapy also often is associated with comfort: With heat therapy, patients think about curling up with a warm heating pad or other heat therapy option, piling on the blankets, pillows, robes and other cozy favorites and settling in for 20 minutes or more of relaxation. Combine that image with the fact that heat therapy has many health benefits and provides some temporary relief from pain, and it is easy to see why patients lean towards heat therapy when given a choice.
However, in addition to or instead of heat therapy, many doctors often encourage or recommend cold compression therapy for chronic pain as well. Cold therapy, as recommended by the Arthritis Foundation, can produce equal amounts of health benefits as its cousin heat therapy, and cold therapy is proven to be especially beneficially when treating acute pain. In fact, the Arthritis Foundation cites cold therapy can help pain issues help by:
- Restricting blood vessels
- Slowing circulation
- Reducing swelling
- Reducing inflammation
- Numbing nerve endings
- Dulling pain
And cold compression therapy has come a long way from just dunking your elbow into icy water or grabbing a bag of frozen vegetables for your knee. With cold compression therapy, patients receive the benefits of cold therapy – decreased pain, muscle spasms and swelling – while adding active compression that mimics the body’s natural muscle contractions. In addition, the compression pumps edema out of the injured area while stimulating tissue healing, increasing blood flow and delivery of oxygen and optimizing lymphatic drainage. That’s a lot more than your average bag of peas.
PowerPlay cold compression therapy wraps are designed for many specific parts of the body that are often associated with chronic pain. Each provides battery life of between 4-8 hours of continuous therapy use and comes equipped with a gel pack and other optional insert for adding ice or other packs for additional coldness. And since the compression keeps the cold therapy close to the source of pain through many different wrap options, along with it weighing just under one pound for portability and convenience. The PowerPlay gel packs may also be warmed in the microwave for heat therapy, giving you the most flexible therapy options.
The Arthritis Foundation recommends experimenting with both forms of therapy to find which works best with your pain. When experimenting, ask your doctor to recommend the correct cold compression therapy solution that would work best for your specific pain management situation. With the right cold compression therapy solution targeting the exact pain source, cold therapy can provide extended relief from pain associated with injuries, stressed muscles and even long-term health issues like arthritis.