Using Hydrotherapy for Pain Relief

Hydrotherapy is the use of water for healing the body. Specifically, alternating hot and cold water therapy is hugely beneficial for pain relief and it’s free! 

Using hot and cold can help manage pain.  For acute pain (eg. sprained ankle in the first 48 hours), cold is always used, to keep swelling down.  But chronic pain doesn’t have the same kind of swelling as a very recent injury. Often, the issue is actually that the area is not getting enough circulation.

Circulation is necessary for healing chronic injury and damage because it brings fresh, healing blood with growth factors and platelets, and takes away cellular waste products and toxins. Injuries in tendons and other areas with poor circulation often heal poorly for the lack of fresh blood.

For this reason, many injuries and areas of damage benefit greatly from hydrotherapy.  Alternating exposure to cold and hot water is an excellent way to stimulate circulation and waste removal from an inflamed or injured area of the body and reduce pain.

How does it work?

Cold water makes the superficial blood vessels constrict, sending the blood into deeper tissue. Following that with hot water dilates the superficial vessels and draws it out again. Alternating hot and cold in buckets of water or in hot/cold showers is essentially acting like a pump in your muscles, moving the blood around and helping flush out areas that don’t get quite as much circulation. This is also an excellent technique for someone with cold hands and feet in the winter- alternating hot and cold showers can save you from the painful cold in the fingertips and toes.

When using alternating hot and cold hydrotherapy, it is important that you always start with hot and finish with cold. A basic hydrotherapy protocol looks like this:

  • Start hot (not scaling) for 3 minutes
  • Alternate between hot and cold every 3 minutes, going as cold as you can go without pain and as hot as you can go without scalding yourself.
  • Repeat for 8 cycles (4x each temp) and finish cold.

You can use buckets of water if it’s for ankles or feet, visit a spa or spring with hot and cool baths, or you can simply turn your shower to hot and cold.

What does it help treat?

  • Strains and sprains of the foot, ankle, elbow, knee, wrist, neck, or shoulder
  • Swelling (once the acute stage has passed)
  • Muscle spasms
  • Joint aches
  • Repetitive-strain injuries, such as tendonitis or tennis elbow
  • Sports injuries
  • Flare-ups of chronic conditions, such as arthritis or fibromyalgia
  • Some pains associated with cancer
  • Any other injury that causes swelling or aching

When to use contrast hydrotherapy

Use when an injury is a semi-chronic or chronic condition. This means when it’s been more than 72 hours after an injury and your body is not in acute inflammation. It’s particularly helpful for recurrent or very long-term “achey” pain, even pain that’s been there for months or years.

When not to use contrast hydrotherapy

Don’t use when there is any open skin wounds or risk of infection. Be cautious if there is decreased sensation or neuropathy (as in a diabetic foot, for example), because it may be harder to tell if the water is scalding or freezing the skin. Likewise be cautious if there are any heart or systemic conditions that react to varying temperatures, like cold urticaria (hives).

Learn more about pain management by booking a consult with Dr. Mason-Wood, ND and discuss your treatment options today.

Solutions for Chronic Pain: Part 2, Prolotherapy and Biopuncture

Pain is an alarm signal that there is something wrong going on in our bodies. When there is chronic pain, the alarm signal continues to go off for months or even years. If you are dealing with chronic pain, relief can feel hopeless, but there are a number of strategies that can be used in the treatment of chronic pain. Biopuncture and prolotherapy stimulate the body’s natural healing response at the site of pain. These injection techniques can be very helpful in the treatment of chronic pain.

Prolotherapy

Prolotherapy incorporates the use of a specifically formulated dextrose (sugar) solution injected into a ligament or tendon where it attaches to the bone. When this solution is injected, growth factors are recruited to the area. Growth factors stimulate tissue growth and the deposition of collagen, which is important in healing damaged muscle, tendons and ligaments. Prolotherapy is helpful in a variety of conditions such as torn ligaments or tendons, osteoarthritis, back pain, fibromyalgia, frozen shoulders, whiplash injuries, herniated and degenerative discs and a number of other conditions.

Biopuncture

Biopuncture is an injection of glucose-based substance with dilute botanical and homeopathic substances into areas of pain. The combination of ingredients is individualized and tailored to the patient to allow for the best outcome. The injection is made at the site of pain to help stabilize the inflammation in the musculoskeletal system. Inflammation is an important process of healing. Inflammation is the accumulation of immune cells that work to repair the damage. Biopuncture works by supporting inflammation to speed up the healing process. It treats the underlying cause instead of covering up the symptoms. Biopuncture treats a variety of musculoskeletal and chronic inflammatory conditions. 

For more treatment options, see last week’s article. Don’t live in pain any longer. Book an appointment with Dr. Mason-Wood, ND to see if these treatments are right for your chronic pain.

A Naturopathic Approach to Pain

Chronic pain can be a debilitating condition. Last week we discussed some of the science behind pain, this week we will look into the naturopathic approach to pain.
 
There are lots of different reasons why a person may be experiencing pain. It is important to take the time to identify the root cause so that it can be targeted in the treatment.  For some people chronic pain is a musculoskeletal problem, for others, it’s a problem within the nervous system, immune system, digestive system, circulatory system, respiratory system or multiple of these. In an appointment for pain, you can expect a full workup with detailed questioning, a review of systems and physical exams.
 
It is also important to remember that pain affects everyone’s life differently.  Just like taking Tylenol won’t work for everyone’s pain, neither will prescribing the same treatments. Looking at a comprehensive overview of a person’s medical history and their lifestyle helps naturopathic doctors to create individualized treatment plans.
 
Dr. Mason-Wood, ND uses these principles of finding the root cause and individuality to guide the management of chronic pain. On top of graduating as a Naturopathic Doctor, he has taken multiple additional courses to further his learning and is able to provide some of the best pain treatments. Based on his evaluation of the patient, different modalities may be utilized, such as diet, counselling, botanicals, neural therapyozone therapybiopuncture, acupuncture, prolotherapy or prolozone therapy. To get a personalized pain management treatment, book your appointment with Dr. Mason-Wood, ND today!

What is Pain?

We have all experienced pain sometime in our lives. Pain can be a protective measure that helps us know something is wrong. However, when pain lasts for a long time, it can significantly impact a person’s quality of life. 1 in 5  Canadians live with chronic pain and it is one of the major sources of disability in the country.  In this article, we will break down a bit of the science behind pain.

Nociception

In our skin, tissue and organs,  there are nerve cells that sense harmful substances. These nerve cells, called nociceptors, will send a message to the brain that we perceive as pain.  Nociception causes sudden, short-lasting pain.

Nociception is also responsible for a protective mechanism called the withdrawal reflex. When we come in contact with something harmful, like stepping on a tack or touching a hot pot, our bodies react moving away from the “danger” without even thinking. Shortly after this reflex, the nociceptors send messages to the brain to recognize that experience as a painful experience which helps us learn not to do it again.

Chemical Signaling of Pain 

In addition to the nerve stimulation of pain through nociception, there are also chemical messengers that are released. These chemicals are released around the “problem areas” and can cause inflammation and make the nociceptors more sensitive to pain. These chemicals signal the body’s immune cells to gather at the problem area, provide nutrients and promote healing.

Chronic Pain

Chronic pain is pain lasting longer than 3 months. It is a very complex problem and can be debilitating to almost all aspects of a person’s life. There are many different causes and body systems involved. Some of the different reasons why a person may be experiencing chronic pain include…

  • increased sensitivity of the pain nerve fibres
  • the body not being able to block pain signals after there is no longer the threat
  • An underlying issue that causes pain (ex: fibromyalgia, nerve damage and arthritis)

There are many other reasons that may cause chronic pain as well. Chronic pain management requires an in-depth investigation and a multimodal approach. At Natural Terrain, Dr. Mason-Wood treats chronic pain. Book your appointment today!