Which is better for sore body - heat or ice?

OK, this is how it works. Immediately after an injury you need to apply ice (cold). This helps to prevent swelling and additional injury caused by the swelling. A few hours later after the risk of swelling is gone, you need to start applying heat - heat increases blood flow to the area and speed healing. At this point applying more ice (cold) will actually slow healing even though it makes it feel numb. What your physical therapist is doing is forcing your knee to work which is actually causing additional MINOR injury to the surrounding tissues. So, they are applying heat to warm up the tissues and make the joint move more easily; but, afterwards they know there is some additional MINOR damage to that tissue and they are having you ice it down to prevent it from swelling and causing even more damage slowing your recovery. About 2 - 3 hours after leaving the physical therapist office, you should start applying heat to the area again. This helps keep the joint moving and promotes healing in the surrounding tissue.

The might loosen the muscles up and so they would no longer be tight and would feel better. And, ofcourse, the ice would help swelling which could make it uncomfortable and be painful. So, it depends on the situation. I would take something too like ibroprofen or something.

I am not sure which is the best solution. But on the contrary, I tend to apply the heat for the sore body. As the hot temperature will make your blood runs well. And due to it, the blood will carry the oxygen all over your body and therefore you shall feel well soon. I love China

I would suggest ice. I have a pain in my back sort of near the hip on the right side - went from the left to the right this week. A friend at the beautician's this afternoon said use ice. She had gone to the DR with pain and he said always use ice for pain, never heat. I know I've been using a frozen ice bottle on my foot for pain - I put my foot on it and roll it back and forth and it really helps!

I think it may depend on the cause of the pain. I recall sitting in a hot spa to relieve muscle soreness from exercise but applying ice to an injury to my ankle which prevented some of the swelling and bruising. I like to feel heat when I am really sore but as I said I guess it would depend. When I had shin splints from running too much I used to have to alternate between ice water and heat and that was no fun!

It is my belief that ice is only good for relieving swelling. But I think that the swelling is there for a reason too. The body creates fluid around an injury site to protect it so we should just put up with the swelling and rest the area in my opinion instead of icing it. Applying heat is usually the best thing for areas of pain. Whenever I have any back or neck issues, keeping the area warm usually helps a lot.

I do not have any idea about which is best. I just hope that any of the folks who is well trained on this area will come out and give you a correct answer.