Cold or hot fermentation for your injury?

When we are injured, the first thing that comes to our mind is fermentation! Whether it is a muscle spasm, or sprain, or even if you broke your bone… But, one thing that might put us in a dilemma is, which type of fermentation to be done… Cold or hot? As both the fermentations help you reduce pain and also overcome inflammation, which one should you go for?

We mostly get confused and in order to reduce swelling of the injured part we tend do wrong fermentation, which in turn, instead of reducing our pain and swelling, it increases! Therefore you should always be very careful about the type of fermentation you choose for your injuries.

Injuries can be broadly classified into two namely: acute injury and chronic injury.

Acute and chronic injury:

Acute injury suddenly happens while performing an exercise or while walking or running. Sprain, fractures, strained back, etc. are its few types. Some common signs of acute injury can be:

• swelling
• severe pain in the injured area
• limb weakness
• unable to move that joint

Chronic injuries on the other hand, are when you have been suffering from the pain for more than 5 days or over time and happens when you exercise in a wrong posture (this include walking, sitting and even  standing). Acute pain can also turn into a chronic pain when not treated properly. Some signs of chronic injuries are:

• pain in performing a task
• slight swelling while you lay pressure on the injured part
• numbness

The type of fermentation that you should use, depends upon the type of injury you are suffering from.

Treatment for Acute injury:

Anybody suffering from acute injury shall follow ‘RICE’ which stands for, Relaxation, ice fermentation, Compression and Elevation.

For any injury relaxation is an integral part, if proper relaxation is not being given it might turn increase the pain and turn into a chronic injury.

And, if it is not a muscle injury then you should immediately do ice fermentation, but never apply the ice directly on to the body… You should wrap it in a towel and then apply.

Compression helps you overcome post-acute swelling. Elevation, this is very effective when the injured part is raised above the level of heart, it helps to control the flow of the blood and hence reduces swelling and also pain!

Treatment for Chronic injury:

Chronic injury is being caused when you exercise fast or in an improper posture, when you wear wrong shoes, do same or only one type of exercise, when you have recently recovered from an injury and you do heavy workouts (in a case have you have just recovered from an injury, may be acute or chronic, you should only workout as per the exercises being prescribed by your physiotherapist)

To treat chronic injury, at our physiotherapy center in Indore, it is suggested to do hot water fermentation, it helps you to overcome muscles stress and makes it less stiff, when you follow this on a regular base, and it soothes your muscles and reduces swelling and eases movement of the injured area.

It is always good have an advice of a physiotherapist. He might suggest you a few exercises that would help you heal better also, if you are having acute injury he would check upon it so that it does not turn into a chronic one!