Heat and Cold for Back Pain: When to Use Each
How to use heat or cold for short-term comfort, with practical safety checks and no rigid injury timeline.
Heat and cold are comfort measures. Neither one reliably determines whether tissue is inflamed, accelerates disc healing, or fixes the cause of back pain. The common instruction “ice for 72 hours, then switch to heat” is not an evidence-based universal rule.
This section requires a subscription
Get full access to all guide sections, exercises, and illustrations.