![]() One simple method of cooling the joints is a cool-water soak in a tub. Like heat therapy, cold therapy comes in several forms. “Cold therapy is helpful as it can lower joint temperatures, reduce pain, and decrease inflammation,” she says. The main benefits of cold therapy are reducing inflammation, swelling, and soreness, as well as temporarily relieving joint pain caused by an arthritis flare.Ĭold therapy is best during an acute flare, Maggiore says. If your joints are inflamed, it makes sense that something cold could ease the inflammation and thus the pain. RELATED: 10 Ways to Find Relief From Chronic RA Pain Cold Therapy for Rheumatoid Arthritis In addition to putting heat on targeted areas, you can also warm up your whole body by taking a warm bath or shower or by swimming in a heated pool.īecause heat can promote inflammation, “ should be avoided during an active inflammatory phase when joint temperatures are elevated,” Maggiore says. Palmer recommends paraffin therapy for the hands when they're stiff, like first thing in the morning, but not when the joints are inflamed.Īnother option: "Applying warm compresses (such as hot water bottles) works in a similar way to a paraffin bath," Palmer says. "Then you wrap your paraffin-covered hands and wrists in a little towel, and it gives you a nice moist, deep heat that can help eliminate some of the pain and stiffness of RA." "The paraffin is heated to a prescribed temperature and then you dip in your hands, wrists, and fingers, and it forms a coating," Palmer explains. One version of hot therapy is the paraffin, or wax, bath, similar to what's used in nail salons to soften the skin and nails. "It can relieve some of the joint pain and the stiffness and prepare your body for exercise or to get up and get moving and out the door." "Gentle heat in the morning can improve your range of motion," explains Katie Palmer, a physical therapist in Newtown, Pennsylvania. They found that those receiving thermotherapy with a salt-pack for 30 minutes twice a day for five days (in addition to performing a neck stabilization exercise) improved stiffness more than the control group. What thermotherapy can do is lessen the pain and inflammation, at least a bit.Īs the Arthritis Foundation notes: “Soaking in warm water or applying a heated compress is one of the oldest, cheapest, and safest forms of complementary therapy.”Īlthough there aren’t recent studies for rheumatoid arthritis, researchers conducted a study on 35 people with chronic, nonspecific neck pain that was published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in August 2020. ![]() ![]() And, of course, making sure you are taking the most appropriate medication. However, exercise, joint protection, and other forms of education, as well as protective splinting can be more beneficial,” says Lisa Maggiore, a registered and licensed occupational therapist at Greenwich Hospital in Connecticut. ![]() “Using heat or cold can be helpful, relieving, and soothing. Still, hot and cold treatments won't prevent rheumatoid arthritis flares. While there is little evidence that thermotherapy is medically beneficial, a review published in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews of hot and cold treatment for rheumatoid arthritis concluded that superficial moist heat and cryotherapy (cold packs or baths) can be used as palliative, or supportive, therapy. Together, these methods to temporarily relieve RA pain are referred to as "thermotherapy." Doctors and physical therapists often recommend hot and cold therapy to soothe the aching or stiff joints of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and to increase mobility. ![]()
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