“Do hot water baths help in relieving hip pain?”
My mother has severe hip pain that cannot be managed with medication anymore. Will it help if we give her hot water baths to help ease her pain
12 Answers
Pain means something is wrong. A good holistic doctor will get to the underlying cause of the pain and make recommendations. If your mother has diabetes, I do not recommend hot baths. Take her to a health care professional that will take a thorough history and complete a comprehensive examination before recommending treatment. A chiropractor may be a good place to start. Consider chiropractic, physical therapy, massage therapy, aquatic therapy, and as a very last resort, a surgical consultation. I would get several opinions on everything mentioned above.
Hot baths is good for improving blood circulation in the area depending on the cause of the pain I would highly suggest you would see a chiropractor first and having your pain properly diagnosed. The treatment should come after the proper diagnosis of what could cause the pain in the hip
Hot water baths are only good for chronic hip pain. If there is acute or subacute inflammation then the hot water bath can exacerbate the pain.
If the cause of pain is arthritis the hot baths will help loosen the joints.
It can only give you temporary relief however there may be a cause causing the hip pain and a chiropractor can detect and correct it for you.
Maybe could help to release the muscle spasm, but will be only temporarily. If she has the opportunity to get a CT scan for her hip to see the joint closely, that will be the best. After that test, see what's the best treatment option.
In your mother's situation, short-term relief may be attained by heat therapy. However, in your mother's situation, it seems medication is no longer a band-aid for her hip pain. This means your mother has developed a tolerance for her medications, her liver and other systems are having trouble either absorbing, distributing, metabolizing, or excreting those meds. Since the medical model is no longer helping your mother, you may want to try a neuromusculoskeletal specialist (a chiropractor) for a consultation and examination to see if they may be able to accept her case or if a surgical consultation may be warranted.
It would be required to know what the diagnosis of your mother’s hip pain was to answer specific treatments for it. But assuming the bathtub’s hot water doesn’t get too hot, it may be effective. I would suggest to have your mother contact her doctor, who knows the diagnosis for her pain, for home-care recommendations.
Depending upon, not only, the age of your mother, but also the age of her hip problem. Heat is typically best utilized after a hard work out, however, injuries can oftentimes be aggravated by heat. Heat will usually increase the blood flow to an injured area, because inflammation is the body's first response to trauma and/or injury. Ice packs act like a "natural" anti-inflammatory as well as a "natural" anesthetic. Heat or ice should be applied in increments of 15 to 20 minute maximums, give the skin 40 minutes to return to it's "normal" temperature, then you can re-apply!
It would depend on what is causing the pain. If from arthritis, epsom salt baths may provide temporary relief. The warm bath will help to reduce muscle tension around the injured area, however pain and inflammation are typically better managed through proper use of ice packs.
Most people with arthritic conditions find heat helpful. Try to keep the joint mobile without increasing the inflammation too much. Stretching and joint mobilization usually helps to ease the pain. You can also look into joint replacement or restoration with stem cells.
I hope she feels better.
Take care and be well.
Dr. Eric Miller
I hope she feels better.
Take care and be well.
Dr. Eric Miller
Have her X-Rayed to determine the cause of the pain first.
