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Ice Your Back Pain

© Artsy Grampa

After a recent back injury that left me feeling less than Artsy and more like a Grampa, I decided to take a break in the articles on the various anatomical parts of the body to focus on a proven method of chronic back pain relief - icing back pain. At the first sign of injury to the back or new and unusual pain, you may want to consider using ice for pain relief and to reduce swelling.

Typically, when the back is first injured, blood rushes to the damaged area which can cause pain as the back swells. Although swelling is a necessary part of the healing process, and your body's means of protecting the area from further injury, it can be painful. Inflammation often increases pain in the area of the injury as well as lengthening the recovery time due to your reaction to the pain.

You should always consult a physician with new onset back injury, and unless your health care provider tells you otherwise, ice is the way to go for the first 48 hours after injury. The reason you should use ice instead of heat is that heat increases blood flow, which can then increase inflammation and pain leading to a slower recovery. So, although a hot shower or warm bath may feel soothing, you may actually doing yourself more harm than good with heat.

Ice has to be applied to damaged areas correctly or you can have skin irritation and cause worse problems for yourself. You should warm a towel or other soft cloth in water that is a little more than lukewarm and wring out any excess water. Then, before it has time to cool, place the towel or cloth over your ice source (crushed ice, and ice pack or ice cubes work fine). Place the towel or soft cloth ice pack you have created over the injured area of the back and keep it applied for no longer than 15 minutes.

You can repeat this application of ice to the injured area of your back which is causing pain once every 60 minutes for a time no longer than 15 minutes for the first 48 hours as necessary. Always be sure to allow at least one full hour between applications of ice so that you don't cause further damage to the area from the ice applications. Applications of ice should keep your inflammation and swelling at a minimum which will help ease pain topically during the 15 minute applications but will also help speed recovery and lessen pain over time due to control of the inflammation process.