“For my knee pain should I use hot treatment or cold?”
I am having pain in my knees. This happens a couple times of year, I think due to severe weather change. Should I do hot treatment or cold to ease the pain?
9 Answers
Nabil A Ebraheim
Orthopedist
You should see a doctor to find the cause of the pain in order to find out how to treat it best.
Alternating hot and cold helps but finding the root cause of the pain is essential
Both can be successful. For an acute injury we usually recommend ice. For more chronic pain such as the pain present more than three months usually moist heat works better. But in some individuals ice works whereas in other ones they feel better with heat. In your case use which ever one that feels better or use both.
Never use heat on the joint if there is pain from inflammation; always Use ice and ice packs can be applied for up to 60 minutes or longer directly on the skin. The old 20 minutes max for icing body parts was a wives tale for people that were not smart enough to know if they were getting frostbite.
Cold is helpful only for a very recent injury. theefore warm is probably the best modality
When the pain occurs, put ice on them for 20 minutes 4 times a day. Also take advil or aleve during episodes of pain.
Cold usually helps reduce swelling and pain. A knee sleeve and quadriceps isometric straight leg lifts immensely helpful in many cases
You are quite fortunate to have knee pain only twice a year! The use of heat or cold depends on the circumstances in which your pain occurs and associated symptoms. Cold is great for acute onset of pain, especially with swelling. Heat works well for aching pain associated with stiffness.
Use cold treatments.
