Whether you are treating yourself at home or are undergoing physical therapy with a trained professional, the chances are that, if you are recovering from an injury, surgery, or some other problem, you will be advised to use some form of thermotherapy.
What is thermotherapy? And what are the various ways it can be used to help your body to heal?
Keep reading to learn more about this simple yet effective therapy tool and how it could benefit your health and wellness in many ways.
Thermotherapy is the use of either hot or cold applications to the body to change the temperature of your various soft tissues.
Thermotherapy is used to treat a wide variety of conditions and to relieve many different symptoms.
The use of heat and cold are most often recommended for soft tissue injuries and other types of musculoskeletal damage.
The most immediate effect of applying heat or cold to your body is that it can relieve pain.
These two forms of therapy have similar outcomes but opposite effects on your body.
Most forms of thermotherapy are designed to target a specific area while leaving the surrounding tissues untouched or affecting them in minimal ways.
Some forms of thermotherapy, though, target the whole body, resulting in more systemic effects.
Below, we explore the diverse types of thermotherapy, both hot and cold, and include ways that these therapies can be applied as well as what conditions they are best suited for treating.
The application of heat increases the blood flow to a particular area through a process known as vasodilation, which is a widening of the vessels that carry blood to the area.
Heat improves the tissue extensibility while also enhancing the metabolic rate of the surrounding area, accelerating healing, and improving the uptake of vital oxygen into the cells.
Local heat therapy can be accomplished using hot packs, warm compresses, and various types of heat wraps.
These apply warmth to a specific area and are appropriate for the treatment of a small wound or damaged area of tissue.
Whole-body heat therapy, including the use of wax baths, sunlight, saunas, and steam rooms, allows the heat to penetrate the whole body and can offer treatment for more chronic problems or for issues that span many different systems or parts of the body.
When you raise your core body temperature, such as by sitting inside a sauna, your body releases unique heat shock proteins that can have several positive effects on the body.
Other forms of whole-body treatment include hydrotherapy, which is exercise that takes place in warm water.
This treatment is used to help relieve pain in those with certain musculoskeletal and neurologic conditions.
By reducing inflammation, blocking various pain receptors to the brain, relaxing muscles, and enhancing circulation, this form of therapy is widely used in rehabilitation and physical therapy for many medical conditions.
Using various forms of electrotherapy, including infrared treatments, ultrasound, and shockwaves, you can introduce heat into the deeper tissues of the body.
In instances where the damage or injury is well below the skin’s surface, these forms of treatment can be useful for targeting heat into the area on a limited basis. Because infrared does not require direct contact with the skin to offer benefits, it is excellent for treating all sorts of conditions.
Using applications of cold has the opposite physiological effect as heat in that is constricts blood vessels, thereby reducing blood flow to a given area.
This period of restriction is then followed by vasodilation, which is your body’s natural response to less blood flow.
Therefore, cold therapy should only be used for short periods.
Cold causes cell metabolism to slow, which can reduce inflammation and inhibit tissue extensibility.
Cold also lowers the deterioration of tissues from harmful enzymes, including elastase, protease, and collagenase.
Cold can slow injury progression, allowing the tissues to survive and start the healing process.
By reducing inflammation, it can also lower pain.
Local cold therapy is usually given to small areas using ice packs, cold compresses, and cold sprays.
These are effective ways to reduce swelling and halt damage after an initial injury or during post-operative recovery.
Ice is generally applied for periods of no more than 10-15 minutes.
Whole-body cryotherapy can be accomplished using ice baths and other forms of cold-water immersion.
In some cultures, diving into icy bodies of water, such as lakes and rivers, is a regular activity that is meant to stimulate the body and prevent diseases.
One of the many benefits of applying heat to your body is that it can help reduce pain.
Your body has heat-sensitive calcium channels, which modulate your brain’s perception of pain and heat, and when activated by higher temperatures, they can inhibit pain receptors in the brain, causing you to feel relief.
The effect of pain reduction happens because of a variety of mechanisms and channels, depending on the source of the pain, but they are generally effective.
When you apply heat to a smaller area or your whole body, you are increasing blood flow, which brings more oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, which are vital for allowing your cells to operate properly, repair damage, and remain strong.
The added oxygen can help to lower inflammation and prevent muscle contractions, which can cause pain, as well.
Stiffness is also greatly reduced when heat is applied to a joint.
By applying heat to specific muscles, you can alleviate muscle soreness from over-exertion.
By forcing the muscle to relax, you relieve the pressure that is causing the tightness and soreness, and you feel better.
Many people benefit from sauna or hot water therapy after a workout for this reason.
Heat therapy can improve the range of motion and prevent stiffness caused by a variety of medical conditions or acute problems.
Combined with stretching and other exercises, heat can increase muscle flexibility and help your joints move more easily.
By increasing blood flow, you can help your body to heal faster.
Whether to a specific area or your whole body, heat therapy releases special proteins and hormones that can enhance the healing process and block inflammatory markers and other compounds that impede healing.
Cold therapy is a time-honored tool for treating a variety of conditions.
Cold compresses and ice packs are generally used after an injury or surgery to reduce swelling and promote healing.
By applying ice in short sessions to an injury, you reduce blood flow and bring down swelling, which can also reduce pain.
Once the swelling and inflammation are lowered, your body can begin to heal the injury or wound, too.
Ice baths and cold-water immersion can be used to activate your natural healing process in the entire body, reducing inflammation and other symptoms that are brought on by physical exertion, overuse, and various medical conditions.
Athletes often use ice baths and other forms of cold therapy after training or competition to reduce inflammation and balance the healing powers of the body.
Immersion in icy water is also known to enhance the operation of your lymphatic system, which is the series of vessels and glands in your body that helps expel the various wastes that are produced by your cells and organs.
This system operates on muscle contraction and immersing yourself in cold water causes those vessels to contract, which flushes your system and removes wastes.
Cold-water immersion and cold therapy also work in tandem with your immune system to strengthen your health.
The release of wastes by the lymphatic system triggers an immune response to remove unwanted pathogens, which can keep you healthy and strong over time.
Cold therapy also helps to enhance your circulation.
When you immerse your body in chilly water, your body immediately goes into survival mode and sends blood to protect your vital organs and tissues.
Forcing your heart to work more efficiently, this process leaders to a more targeted supply of oxygen to your body.
When you engage in this therapy regularly, it works out your heart and vessels in important ways that can make them stronger and healthier over time.
For some conditions, combining heat and cold therapy can be an effective way to promote healing, reduce pain, and improve your symptoms.
Known as contrast bath therapy, this treatment involves immersing either a body part or the whole body in heat and then immediately in cold.
While this can be done with water in both instances, you can also use a sauna or steam room followed by a cold-water bath.
Combining hot and cold therapies into a single therapeutic session could give you the health and wellness benefits of both.
While the heat reduces pain and improves mobility, the cold reduces inflammation.
When you contrast them quickly, your body’s circulation gets quite a workout, too.
Alternating hot and cold multiple times also offers an opportunity for your lymphatic system to do its job thoroughly and cleanse your tissues of wastes and toxins.
The alternating thermotherapy contracts and dilates your vessels multiple times, thus strengthening their ability to remove wastes while removing stagnant fluids from the injured or diseased area.
By removing wastes, you are also strengthening the immune system and lowering the inflammatory response, as well.
Localized application of ice and heat is a widespread practice in the treatment of injuries.
While it is not recommended that you apply heat in the two days immediately following an injury, using this combination after this initial window can speed the healing process while also reducing pain to the injured area.
Based on years of data regarding sauna use in Finland, there is sufficient evidence to show that regular use of sauna followed by immersion in cold water can increase overall health and wellness, improve longevity, and result in improved healing and fewer chronic health problems, as well.
Which therapy you choose to use should be dictated by the stage of your disease or injury.
Using the right application of hot or cold can help you to progress through the three phases of healing properly, but using them at the wrong times can delay your healing.
Healing takes place in three distinct phases, which are known as the inflammatory, proliferation, and remodeling phase.
Using thermotherapy is appropriate at all three phases, but it is important that you know which phase calls for which form.
During the inflammatory phase, which is right after an injury or surgery, you need to protect your body from further injury and allow the body’s natural processes to work as they should.
During this phase, it is appropriate to use cold therapy of any kind, as this can reduce swelling, calm inflammation, and help with pain.
Using heat during this phase will only delay healing by increasing swelling and pain.
This phase only lasts two days.
The proliferation phase is when your body really gets to work healing because it starts to generate new tissue while also creating scar tissue around the injury.
During this phase, using alternating heat and cold is helpful.
While you will still have some swelling, which is why cold is still appropriate, you want to encourage blood circulation to the area to bring in the needed enzymes, nutrients, and other compounds needed for tissue growth.
During the final phase of remodeling, your body is working to restore the area to its former status.
Not only is your body busty restoring structure but also function to this area.
This includes healing of bones and blood vessels, mending skin and other tissues, and restoring function of all tissues in the area.
Heat therapy is helpful for improving this phase.
Thermotherapy is simply the use of heat and cold to help your body naturally heal.
Applying these can affect inflammation, pain, and other symptoms while also helping your body to attend to the injury or diseased tissue.
Careful and thoughtful application of heat and cold is an important therapy to use after an injury or surgery.
Richard Hoover is a PEMF expert and content contributor to PEMF Advisor. With a bachelor’s degree in physics and multiple certifications in natural health programs, he is one of the best PEMF experts around.
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