Is too much heat bad for lower back pain? People who use heat pads to reduce back pain are more concerned about this question. There are diffferent aspects of using heat pads.
What Will I learn
Excessiveness of anything is dangerous for health. Everyone wants to get rid of lower back pain. Heat therapy or heat pads are a good solution, but you should know the heat required for pain relief.
Is Too Much Heat Bad For Lower Back Pain
Heat pads or heat therapy are used to reduce lower back pain. Heat makes blood circulation better in the body. It increases blood flow through arteries.
Heat pads help to reduce stress on the muscles and make them relax. It has been used for the healing process for many years. It works more effectively and alleviates pain in the body.
Before using any heat pads or heat therapy for pain relief, you should know some points. First, you should know the amount of heat required for your body.
You should follow proper instructions and precautions before using heat pads. In addition, you should consult an experienced heat therapist for pain relief.
Benefits Of Heat Therapy To Alleviate Pain
Heat therapy is beneficial for back pain relief. It relaxes the stressed muscles and tissues and reduces pain. You can feel the quick results after heat therapy.
Following are the benefits based on my personal experience. I’ve seen my patients enjoying these benefits after having heat therapy;
1. Increase The Healing Process:
When heat or warmth is applied to the body, it increases blood flow and circulation. As a result, it helps speed up the body’s healing process.
Better blood flow helps to increase the oxygen supply, platelets, and white blood cells in other organs. These help the damaged tissues or cells to repair fast.
2. Soothes Painful Muscles:
When you feel pain in your back muscles, it can also move to other body parts. Muscle spasm is the common result of this pain. It can affect the neck, shoulder, and abdomen.
Muscle spasm blocks blood circulation in the body. Heat therapy improves blood circulation and reduces this back muscle spasm.
3. Boosts Immunity:
The heat helps to boost the immunity of the body. In addition, heat stimulates the white blood cells to move dead cells from the body and fight infections more effectively.
It makes the immune system better to fight any pain. In addition, it helps to reduce pain in the body by relaxing the tense muscles. It releases the stressed muscles from the body.
4. Reduces Stiffness:
Heat therapy helps to ease the stretching of soft tissues and muscles around the spine. As a result, it decreases the stiffness of the muscles.
It helps to increase the range of motion. With the relief of stiffness, your body feels relaxed. It reduces stress and tension in your back muscles which cause back pain.
5. Reduces The Use Of Medication:
People prefer drug-free solutions for pain relief. However, medications have some side effects as well. For example, excessive medication can damage other cells or tissues.
Heat therapy is more effective, and it has no side effects. It is a natural way of relieving pain. It provides you relief and peace. Its effects are long-lasting. It shows instant results.
Tips To Use Heat Pads At Home
If you use heat pads at home, you must be careful with the application. You should know the basic tips for using heat pads. They can cause pain instead of a cure if not used properly.
The following tips are recommended before applying heat pads. Keep these tips in your mind before using heat pads;
– Always make sure that your heating pad is in good condition.
– Don’t use a heating pad that has a broken electric cord.
– Don’t place heat pads directly on your body.
– Wrap the heating pad in a towel and apply it to the affected area.
– While using heat pads, don’t fall asleep. It can be dangerous.
– Don’t apply heat pads on the injured area of the body.
– Always try with low heat temperature and then start increasing it.
– You can try hot tubs for back pain relief.
Risk Factors Of Heat Therapy:
Heat therapy provides numerous benefits to your body. However, it also has some risk factors. If not used properly according to the guidance of a doctor, it can hurt you.
You should know the amount of heat for different types of back pain. I’ve noticed these factors in people unaware of heat pad disadvantages.
1. Increases Heart Rate:
Heat therapy improves blood flow in the body. It makes blood circulation better. However, this condition has a risk factor—the heart rate changes after applying heat therapy.
The change in heart rate before and after heat therapy can be a risk for the heart. People who suffer from any cardiovascular condition find it dangerous.
2. Increases Swelling:
Heat therapy is not a good option after any injury or physical activity. It can worsen your pain. Your pain can stay for a long time if it is used on damaged cells or tissues.
It can also increase inflammation in your muscles. Avoid using heat pads on physical injury or infected parts of your body.
3. Decreases Blood Pressure:
There is a high chance that your blood pressure may drop very low after heat therapy. This might give you a feeling of dizziness and headache.
You can’t stand properly right after heat therapy. It would help if you sat for some time and then tried to walk alone. You can faint due to decreased blood pressure.
4. Skin Burn:
If heat pads are used for a long time, they can cause burning on your skin. It will make some spots on your body. These marks can disappear if you stop heat therapy.
Burnt skin can damage your sensitive cells and tissues. It would be best always to use a barrier while using heat pads.
Conclusion
Heat or warmth provides relaxation to your body muscles. In ancient times, heat therapy was used to cure back pain or body aches.
Heat therapy is a very known solution for your lower back pain. Many people choose this over medical treatment. It is cost-friendly and more effective.
Before using heat pads, you should consult an experienced physician. Your body needs a different level of heat for different body aches.
Some body parts are sensitive and can’t handle high heat levels. They can cause more pain than cure. You should know the amount of heat required for your pain level.
If you choose heat therapy, you should seek an experienced therapist. You should know the pain intensity you are feeling.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Can We Use Heat Pads After Physical Injury?
No, it would help if you did not use heat pads after injury. They can cause more pain in the affected area. Heat therapy on an injury can increase swelling.
You might feel irritation in the affected area. It can limit your range of motion as well. So, avoid using heat pads during injury or after any physical activity. It can worsen your pain.
2. Can People With Chronic Heart Failure Have Heat Therapy?
People with chronic heart failure should not try heat therapy. It can increase the risk of cardiac illness. It increases sweating and blood flow which can harm the person with heart failure.
Those people have to maintain moderate body temperature and blood flow. Heat therapy also drops blood pressure, which is bad for cardiac patients.
There are many other therapies for cardiac patients for pain relief. They should consult their doctor to learn about the therapies they can try.
3. How Do Heat Pads Work To Reduce Pain?
Heat pads are effective for pain relief. They increase the relaxing chemicals in the body. They relax the tense muscles of the body and reduce stiffness.
It makes blood circulation better in the body. It boosts immunity to fight pain-causing cells and infections. It increases the healing process of the body.
It keeps the blood pressure and heart rate normal. People who face acute lower back pain can use it more frequently. For any further guidance, you should consult your physician.
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