What Is Better For Knee Pain: Heat Or Cold?

Ice and heat are widely used treatments for physical ailments, including knee pain. When people sustain injuries, the initial step often involves applying compresses and gels that offer either hot or cold therapy to the affected area.

However, many people don’t know what they are doing and will have no idea whether heat or cold is the correct choice for their particular problem. As a result, they will often take actions that offer no benefit or can even make the situation worse.

With that in mind, I am going to try and help you figure out the right course of action in one specific area, as we take a closer look at what is better for knee pain: heat or cold. I will explain the preferred choice for some of the most common issues and symptoms while outlining exactly why it works.

This should give you everything you need to heal your injury and ensure you never make the wrong choice again.

– By Steve Burden

Heat Vs Cold By Causes Of Knee Pain

Unfortunately, there is no blanket answer to what is better for knee pain out of heat or cold. This is because both offer their benefits, each of which will have different uses depending on what is causing the problem.

Therefore, instead of stating what is better for knee pain overall, I am going to go through the better choice for a number of the most common knee complaints that people have to deal with.

Arthritis

Arthritis is an autoimmune condition that can affect any of the joints in the body. Sufferers will find their cartilage begins to wear away, leading to the bones rubbing together, damaging themselves and the surrounding areas.

This can lead to extreme levels of inflammation, with the word arthritis itself directly derived from a Latin phrase that means “Joint Inflammation”.

As a result, this means the cold is better than heat for treating arthritis. The best function of cold compresses is that it brings down swelling and inflammation, which reduces pain and creates the best situation for the body to repair itself.

While there is no cure for arthritis, using cold compresses to reduce the inflammation will make it much more manageable to live with and greatly improve the sufferer’s quality of life.

This is especially true for people who have arthritis in their knees, as this is a part of your anatomy that is under constant pressure from the weight of your body.

ACL Tears

The ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) is one of the four main ligaments in the knee and the one that is most frequently injured. An ACL tear is also an injury that will require surgery in the majority of cases, so your job will be focusing more on rehabilitation as opposed to treatment.

ACL tears are one injury where not only is there a clear winner, but the other option can make things dramatically worse. Surgeons recommend avoiding any heat at all after an ACL tear or surgery, including everything from heat packs to even hot baths or showers.

Cold is the preferred option for an ACL tear, as it can dramatically reduce inflammation and swelling. Swelling blocks oxygen and nutrients in the blood from being transported to the site of an injury. By reducing this, you will support the surgery and allow your body to repair itself as quickly as possible.

As a bonus, it will also numb the pain mediators and receptors in the surrounding area. With ACL tears known to be incredibly painful, this means cold is a great way to make your situation as tolerable as possible throughout your rehabilitation.

Tears

Unlike ACL tears, tears to some of the smaller ligaments and muscles around the knee joint don’t always require surgery to heal and can be treated with rest and rehabilitation exercises. In this instance, both heat and cold have roles to play in your recovery.

Immediately after the injury occurs, you will want to begin using ice packs or cold compresses. This will bring down any swelling and allow the nutrients and oxygen required for recovery to freely flow to the point of injury.

You want to use cold therapy for three sessions per day, with each session lasting for around 15 minutes. This process should then be continued for at least three days.

After all of the swelling has completely subsided, you will then want to switch to using heat. Heat increases blood flow so, once there is no longer any inflammation, it will funnel as much support to the injury as possible, helping your body to repair as fast as it can.

Sprains

Sprains, even more, acute ones, are usually relatively small injuries, where the ligaments are wrenched or twisted, as opposed to torn. This means the body will usually be able to repair the damage by itself, with your focus being on reducing pain and creating the best conditions possible.

As a result, ice is a much better choice for dealing with a sprain.

It will reduce the swelling and inflammation around the area that causes most of the pain while creating the best environment to heal as quickly as possible. This means you can sit back and rest without any pain, as you let your body take care of the rest.

Tendonitis

Tendonitis is an affliction that causes strains in a tendon, most commonly as a result of repeatedly performing a similar action or movement. It is similar to sprains in a way, in that there are usually no tears or major damage done to the tissues.

However, unlike with sprains, heat is usually the preferred method for treating tendonitis.

For starters, heat will increase blood flow to the area. This encourages healing to occur as quickly and efficiently as possible.

You then also have the fact that heat is a great way of relaxing muscles. As tendonitis is caused by overuse and repetitive strains, relaxing the area will help to relieve any remaining tension, alleviating pain and stopping the condition from worsening as your body tries to heal.

Muscular Injuries

Muscular injury is a category that covers a broad range of issues, including knots, pulls, spasms, and tears. However, there is a general rule of thumb for any injuries that are purely muscular.

For acute, more severe injuries, you will want to treat the area with cold or ice. This will limit the swelling and inflammation in the area, giving your body the best opportunity to heal and supply the area with nutrients and oxygen, regardless of whether or not you require surgery.

For less severe injuries or chronic conditions, heat is the best option to use to treat a muscle. It relaxes the muscles and improves blood flow, stopping any tension or stress from building up in the region and allowing nature to do its thing.

Minor Injuries 

You can treat minor knee injuries with a combination of heat and cold, each providing benefits without any risk of worsening the situation.

In the immediate aftermath of the injury, ice is a great way to prevent any swelling or inflammation from occurring, which will both cause pain and prevent the area from healing effectively.

Then, a couple of days later, you can begin using heat to relax the muscles and improve circulation to them, creating the perfect conditions which for the injury to heal.

The Verdict: Heat Vs Cold

As I said from the outset, there is no one right answer to what is better for knee pain out of heat and cold. Both have their uses, and both can cause problems if you don’t know what you are doing and utilize them incorrectly.

That said, you should hopefully now have a much better idea of the different afflictions that can affect the knee joint, know how to treat them, and even be able to recognize conditions we haven’t covered and know what the best thing to do for them is.

As a general rule, cold and ice work well for major injuries, while heat is more suitable for less severe or chronic issues.

So, moving forward, you should have full confidence in being able to do what is best for any knee injuries you may suffer, without any worries that you are going to make things worse.