Hi, this is Natalie with Veritas Health, and I'm here to give you guys some information on the use of ice therapy for sciatica or leg pain relief.
When you have sciatica or leg pain, oftentimes you may have shooting or sharp pain down the thigh, lower leg, or even into the foot. This may be accompanied with back pain or maybe no back pain. Although it can be tempting to put the ice therapy where you have pain in the leg, it can actually be more beneficial to put it on your back where the source of the problem is. It's usually on some of the lowest levels of the spine, so you can put the ice in the sacral area or the low back area as this will most likely be the root cause of the problem.
When using ice therapy for the back this can be applied both for an acute situation, so if you hurt your back for the first time within the first 72 hours, you can definitely use ice or even for a flareup of a chronic condition you can use ice as well. Some people find heat more beneficial for a chronic flare up, but if you prefer ice, you can use whatever feels better for you.
There are several different options you can use for ice therapy. You can use an instant cold pack, which you can get at your pharmacy. Depending on the label, these can often be applied directly to your skin. You can use a gel pad that you can also get at your pharmacy and then put in the freezer. These are nice because they can easily contour to the area that you need them. I would just use a towel if you are going to apply this directly your skin, just to provide a protective barrier.
You can also use a homemade gel pack which can provide coverage to a nice large area, contour easily. If you don't have these materials on hand though you can also just use a bag of frozen peas or frozen veggies. Again, if you're applying this directly to the skin, please use a towel as well just as a protective barrier.
When using ice therapy on your back, start with about ten minutes and then you can work your way up to about 20 minutes as needed for pain control. I would not exceed 20 minutes as this could increase your chance of getting frostbite or causing skin damage. You have signs of any excessive redness or skin irritation as this is a sign that you may be damaging your skin.
To learn more about ice therapy for sciatica pain relief or leg pain relief, please visit us at Spine-health.com and be sure to subscribe to our channel for more videos like this one. Thanks for watching!
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