Should you use heat packs or cold packs for upper back pain?  Which helps upper back pain more?  Heat or cold?

The answer is:  It depends!

The rule of thumb is heat for muscular pain and ice or cold for nervy pain.

If your upper back pain feels more like muscle strain or muscular aches, heat is probably the way to go.  Muscles tend to respond well to heat.  You might also want to think about applying heat to your upper chest muscles to help them relax, too.

On the other hand, if you have nervy-like pain or shooting pain that seems to come from the base of your head or from your neck, then an ice pack or cold therapy will probably help the most.  Nerves respond well to cold therapy.

If you use heat and feel slightly worse, then switch to cold.  That means heat wasn’t the best choice.

Ice or a cold pack has been the typical ‘drug of choice’ for recent injuries (up to 72 hours old.)  However, some recent medical research says that ice may slow healing a bit.

Nonetheless, my personal experience is that cold packs help a lot!

After 72 hours, you can also do contrast therapy.  Contrast therapy is alternating heat and cold treatments to the painful area.

For more articles about how to use ice and heat to get rid of pain in your neck and upper back (<– click here.)