When it comes to treating sciatic nerve pain (sciatica) and whether you should use heat or ice to ease pain you should use this simple rule of thumb, base your decision on whether or not to use ice or heat on the symptoms. There are many people that have the misconception that heat is always used to ease the pain, this is not always true.

~If you have sharp or intense pain with or without swelling, which indicates that there is inflammation present, then this is when you want to use ice.

~If your symptoms are mostly stiffness or mild soreness, this is an indication that there is not significant inflammation present and heat would be a better choice for this situation.

Heat deadens the nerve receptors which is why heat almost always feels good however, when the sciatic nerve suffers injury or trauma, it swells and becomes inflamed. This is the sharp severe or intense pain you feel so, when you first experience the pain avoid heat for a minimum of 48 hours. This is to ensure that swelling and inflammation do not develop, if it does and you apply heat you will only worsen the inflammation and feel even more pain when you remove the heat.

After many years of trying to ease the sciatic nerve pain with heat and only feel more intense pain once I removed the heat, I decided to try ice. This is when Discovered the above to be true, ice really does work when you first experience sciatica, it doesn’t feel comfortable when applied but does ease the pain considerably.

As for any injury where inflammation and swelling are present most doctors will recommend application of ice packs to help reduce swelling and inflammation. Ice is one of the best anti-inflammatory measures you can take even though it may not feel comfortable. The short term discomfort of applying ice packs will be rewarded in long term relief of sciatic nerve pain.

If you have applied a topical analgesic such as, Icy Hot, Ben Gay, Theragesic, Biofreeze, or any other, do not apply ice or heat until the effects have completely worn off or you can suffer from skin damage or irritation. When you do use ice packs, or heat for that matter, be sure to place a cloth between the ice or heat and your skin this is also to help prevent skin damage.

When applying heat or ice you should only apply it for twenty minuets once every two hours, once an hour if pain is severe but, to help avoid skin damage try to do it every two. hours. It will take time to feel the heat or cold through a cloth so, wait until you actually feel the heat or cold before you start timing.

If you suffer from impaired circulation or decreased skin sensitivity due to, diabetes, nerve damage, or anything else that causes reduced blood circulation, consult a doctor before applying ice or heat.

After many years of suffering from sciatic nerve pain I finally found some information that help me cure my sciatica and also helped with long term preventive measures to keep it from recurring. Click Here to find out how I did it.