Hydrotherapy is a big topic. Clients love to ask, “What should I use, heat or ice?” My quick answer is to use both but end with ice. Always end with ice.

Heat has numerous wonders. Everybody loves heat! It’s the favored team in the Superbowl, while ice is the underdog who pulls out the slow-creeping win. Ice surprises you in the 4th quarter with guts and glory, zest and vigor.

I’d like to highlight some of the benefits of ice because I get the feeling my clients think I have a touch of sadomasochistic behavior everytime I reach for it.

In fact, ice massage is incredibly healing.

Cold penetrates deeper and longer than heat. But more importantly, ice has an abrupt stimulus which kicks your body into action. Superficial blood vessels constrict at first, causing blood to be sent down to deeper tissues. Then as you thaw out, these same superficial blood vessels dilate like wild, trying to redistribute warm blood to the places that cooled down. Red blood cells and white blood cell counts increase 70-100% with this new supply of blood.

Ice is especially helpful for treating inflammation.

It’s important to recognize the signs of inflammation: redness, heat, swelling, and pain. Redness is caused by the dilation of small blood vessels in the area of injury. Heat results from increased blood flow through the area and experienced only in peripheral parts of the body such as the skin. Fever is brought about by chemical mediators of inflammation and contributes to the rise in temperature at the injury. Swelling, called edema, is primarily caused by the accumulation of action.  All this signals our trusty pain receptors to fire, resulting in pain.

If you see feel these cardinal signs of inflammation you can probably guess what I’d recommend!

Ice ice, baby.

Tips for Treating Inflammation Using Hydrotherapy

Ice a specific area for 20 minutes at a time using a frozen gel pack, which can be found at any Bartell’s or Walgreens. I always have a few in the freezer. They’re great for headaches too!

Also very handy and even more specific is the ice cube-dixie cup.  Just fill up a few dixie cups with water and store them in your freezer.  The next time you have a kink in your neck or achy wrists and forearms, you’ll have a “cool” little tool to ice down the area.

The third icing tip is specifically for plantar fasciitis.  This is a pesky type of inflammation on the bottom of the foot. The plantar fascia extends from the heel bone to the five toes. It’s been reported that two million Americans suffer from it due to long periods of standing or repetitive high impact exercise. The symptoms include pain and numbness on the bottom of the foot and are usually more severe in the morning with the first steps out of bed.  Stretching the foot before getting out of bed can help. Additionally, icing before you go to sleep may decrease the inflammation and aid in faster overnight healing.

Rolling the foot over a frozen plastic water bottle is the best (and cheapest way) to iron out the fibrotic tissue and cool down the inflammation of plantar fasciitis.