If you're having some knee pain and it's fairly
acute or sub-acute in origin there's only
one way to go.
You're going to want to use ice to help you
with this pain for a couple of reasons.
The ice first of all is what's called a vasoconstrictor,
meaning it's going to constrict the blood
vessels heading towards that joint area.
Less blood to the area can really help promote
the reduction of your swelling problem that's
going on in the beginning.
The other reason why the ice is beneficial
is because it can literally sort of numb the
painful receptors inside the joint, so there's
this temporary feeling of improvement and
decreased pain.
If you do it every day or maybe once or twice
a day, you can sort of have a carry-over effect
and speed up the recovery, as well.
The heat option is really good to soothe muscles.
It's something down the line after you've
been doing some exercising.
Your joint problem is under control, but now
your muscles are a little sore from over exercising
and that's where the heat's going to come
in.
But by and large, you're going to want to
ice your knee in the presence of acute pain
or sub-acute pain.
Once a day might be successful.
Twice a day is probably better.
Timeline-wise maybe a 10-minute interval,
maybe 15 minutes at the most depending on
how cold the ice is.
If you're literally using ice cubes and putting
it in a bag, you might want to put a cloth
between your skin and the actual ice cubes.
If it's too cold, it can actually irritate
the skin some, so you might want to put a
layer of cloth in between.
If it's an ice pack that you can get at the
CVS or Rite-Aid, that can go right on your
skin for about 10 to 15 minutes, so definitely
ice, compared to heat.