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Heat and Pain
Control
Heat has been one of the most effective ways to help control pain for thousands
of years.
Its importance in helping to control back and neck pain has been overlooked for
too long. Drugs for pain took on this role, but today we understand how very
damaging these are to the body.
The Heat Treat Backpack
is designed to treat back and neck pain using the most up to date scientific
information regarding heat and pain control and may be able to reduce or
eliminate the need for dangerous drugs.
Before we examine the many ways heat works, we need to point out something that
was very apparent in our research on this subject.
Many people have tried heat as a means to help control their back pain, but
discontinued its use almost immediately. The commonest remark as to the
reason why they discontinued use was because they found it made their pain
worse.
Some of the reasons their pain became worse was due to:
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Applying the heat while the tissues were still inflamed
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Applying the heat at too high a temperature and/or for too
long a period.
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Applying the heat at too low a temperature.
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Applying the heat to one side of the spine, and throwing the
body out of alignment during the treatment
-
Applying heat directly on the spine while treating the
painful tissues.
All of these reasons can most certainly make “pain” worse.
However, by far, the worst offending reason is #5.
It is understood today, that many “pain causing” Conditions in the back and neck
have an inflammatory component occurring, in and around the delicate spinal
nerve roots and joints. Direct application of heat on this area keeps
inflammatory processes alive and well. It brings more “fluids” into this area
and can create more “compression” on nerves and around inflamed joints. This
certainly adds to the “pain load” and is often not noticed until the next day.
The Dangers of Continual Use of Heat
People who make use of heating pads to help alleviate their pain often remark
that continually using heat made their pain much easier to bear. This is exactly
what happened to the inventor of the Heat Treat Backpack. Unfortunately, this
type of heat treatment while effective at pain control – is certainly
perpetuating spinal inflammation, which creates more pain and slows the healing
process. Inflammation hastens the degeneration of numerous spine conditions.
Continual use of heat can only be accomplished by using a heating pad. At the
high temperature a heating pad supplies makes it capable of further damaging the
tissues in the back. Further damage to tissue can also occur due to the lack of
a “cool down” – “blood/toxin out” period. And we won’t get into what outside
electrical fields can do to the body’s own electrical pain signals within the
spinal column. Lastly, constant use of heat, as just described, means the person
is tied to a chair or bed in order to keep the pain controlled.
The Heat Treat Backpack was specifically designed to eliminate all those
problems. It is the only back and neck heat treatment product able to all this
and more.
New discoveries about “Pain” and the use of heat for relief allowed a design
that helps relieve back pain, assists with recovery processes, reduces
stress levels and their toxic chemicals, and with both quick and consistent use
provides an important aid to help ensure your body does not develop the disease
of Pain (Maldynia). It does all this with no worry it will
create or worsen any inflammatory process in the spine.
HOW HEAT HELPS TO CONTROL PAIN AND SPEEDS THE HEALING PROCESS
1. Primary Pain Control
In lay terms, an
application of heat ‘interferes’ with other pain signals currently being sent
through your spine to the brain. The peripheral nerves (skin) that normally
sense ”heat” and “cold” messages also send those hot and cold messages through
to the spine and to the brain. While no one knows exactly all the ways this
happens, heat messages do interfere with other more intense pain messages being
sent from other nerves into this "relay system." In non-medical terms, it is
thought that this ‘confuses’ the brain and helps to close down the signal
intensity of the original pain message already in the relay system.
Quick and consistent interference with the
more severe, intense pain signals may help stop the progression of these signals
from moving into the state of “useless”, but “ongoing” pain when there is no
longer any physical reason for the pain. It may also help to stop "remodeling"
within the "relay system" that turns pain signals into the
Disease of pain Maldynia (Aka
Identifying the pain).
http://www.heattreat.ca/identifyingthepain.php
2. Increased Blood Flow:
The increase in
blood flow also reduces pain by effectively supplying oxygenated blood and
nutrients to the damaged-inflamed tissues while washing out the accumulated
metabolites that are the result of the immune response to damaged tissues.
Increasing blood flow ‘brings in’ important intracellular nutrients and provides
for the replacement of more appropriate cell types.
This increase in blood flow and
oxygenation is also extremely helpful during the ongoing muscular activities
outlined in various recommended physical therapeutic programs, and spinal
manipulations designed to help correct any degenerative condition that led to
your acute pain episode.
3. Reduced Muscle Spasm or Tension
Heating a
painful area can induce whole body relaxation, which is good for stress
reduction. During this whole body relaxation, levels of the highly damaging
hormone, Cortisol, and 16 other stress chemicals are reduced. It is thought
this happens through a descending pain inhibitory pathway while it is helping to
inhibit painful muscle tension and spasms.
4. A Fourth Pain Control Theory
This theory
involves the direct influence of heat on neuromuscular tissue, including muscle
spindles and on sensory nerve
conduction, breaking the vicious cycle of pain-spasm-pain – effective in
treatment for both acute and many types of chronic back pain.
Bringing pain
and inflammation under control increases flexibility and the ability to move.
This is very important, as movement is a major part of anyone's healing
process.
Suggested Further Reading
If you have not yet read “The Site Concept” this is a good place to start. We
said we were a different type of Back and Neck Pain Site and we meant that. This
is an article that will explain what you can expect to find on our site and why.
The next article we might suggest is “Identifying the Pain.” Understanding about
“Pain” and the importance of “Naming” the pain is one of the biggest
considerations in any treatment process no matter what “pain-causing” Condition
you may have. It discusses the importance of “Immediately and Completely”
controlling pain. Understanding why treatment of back and neck pain so often
fails begins with this article.
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