Can hot compress be applied during the remission period of chronic pain? How long will it take to get better?

Most chronic pain can be treated with hot compresses after entering the remission phase, but there is no unified standard for the specific recovery time, which can range from a few weeks to years or even long-term follow-up management.

For chronic pain caused by muscle strain, such as the most common chronic lumbar muscle strain and neck and shoulder myofasciitis, when there is no obvious redness, swelling or needle-like pain during the remission period, warm compress is actually a very cost-effective home care method. Hot compress is actually equivalent to "loosening the soil" of muscles and soft tissues that have been tight for a long time, speeding up local circulation and taking away the accumulated lactic acid and inflammatory metabolic factors. The parts that have been painful for a long time will naturally become much looser. I met a little girl who works in Internet design a while ago. She suffered from recurring pain from lumbar fasciitis for more than half a year. During the acute attack, she couldn't bear to sit for even half an hour. When she entered the remission period, she went home from get off work every day and took a warm towel that was tightly twisted without dripping and applied it to her shoulders and waist for 20 minutes. Along with doing core strength training with Pilates twice a week, the pain basically stopped recurring in more than two months.

But not everyone is suitable for hot compresses, and there is now a lot of controversy in the industry about this matter. For example, in the case of neurogenic chronic pain such as post-herpetic neuralgia and diabetic peripheral neuropathy, even in the remission period, some patients' pain receptors are already in a hypersensitive state, and their skin will feel pain when their clothes rub against them. For them, the temperature stimulation of hot compresses is like delivering a heat source to sensitive nerves, which can easily induce burning pain, but is not as comfortable as cold compresses or normal temperature wet compresses. For patients with chronic gout, even if there are no acute symptoms of redness, swelling and pain in the joints, if the blood uric acid is still floating above 500 μmol/L, some doctors will not recommend hot compresses, fearing that rising temperatures will accelerate the dissolution of local urate crystals and trigger acute attacks. However, some doctors believe that as long as the temperature is controlled at around 40°C and does not exceed 20 minutes each time, there will not be much impact. It depends on the individual's reaction after applying the application. There is no absolute right or wrong.

As for what everyone is most concerned about, how long it will take to recover, I really can’t give you an accurate answer. Like the chronic pain caused by muscle strain just mentioned, as long as you don’t stay up late every day and sit for more than ten hours while applying it, and provide standardized care and regular exercise, the pain will basically not affect your life in two or three weeks, and it can be stabilized in three to five months. However, if it is chronic pain caused by autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis, or chronic pain caused by spinal cord injury or tumor metastasis, there is basically no "complete cure". The pain can only be controlled to a level that does not affect life through nursing and medication, and long-term management is required.

By the way, I would like to remind you that when applying hot compress, many people always feel that the hotter it is, the more effective it is. Some people even fall asleep holding a hot water bottle. I once met an aunt who had lower back pain and applied a hot water bag to sleep all night. The low temperature caused a blister the size of an egg, which made the pain even worse. In fact, the temperature should be controlled at 40 to 45 degrees Celsius, and 15 to 20 minutes each time is enough. If you feel pain or itchiness after applying it, don’t force yourself to continue applying it. The one that suits you is the most effective.