Archive for September, 2011
How are Cold and Heat Therapy Useful?
Go take a warm bath. Put some ice on it. Put cold and hot packs on it. Soak it in cool water. How many times have you heard this sort of advice after an accident or injury or during a time you were experiencing pain? Hot therapy –applying heat– and cold therapy –applying cold– for an affected area are both age-old methods. But for what are they most useful, and how should they be used?
Heat Therapy
The function of hot therapy is to open the blood vessels. This increases blood flow throughout the body or to one area of the body, which helps to deliver oxygen and nutrients and remove waste. It also relaxes the muscles and helps to reduce pain in the affected area.
Hot therapy is generally used for muscle stiffness and ongoing pain. It can also be used on more acute problems, such as incipient respiratory infection, bronchitis, asthma, circulatory problems, and lung disease. Heat therapy is also effective at treating cramps, muscle pain, gastric and duodenal ulcers, and rheumatoid arthritis and arthrosis.
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Heat therapy is generally applied as a wrap, a compress, a sauna, a shower, or a bath. Heat baths can be used to treat the whole body, or used to treat only the affected area. You should always use caution when using heat therapy, and always check that the temperature is comfortable for you. Don’t use heat therapy over open wounds or stitches, or if you have poor circulation. Hot treatment should not last more than thirty minutes.
Cold Therapy
As you might guess, cold therapy does just the opposite of hot therapy. It slows down blood flow to a particular area, helping to reduce inflammation, muscle spasms, and pain.
For injuries, cold treatment is generally used right after the injury itself. It’s effective in treating sprains and strains caused by physical activity. It also helps stop nosebleeds, and can be used to reduce the severity of minor burns, as well as treat pain. Other than injuries, cold therapy is effective in treating varicose veins, edemas, low blood pressure, headaches, circulatory problems, sleeplessness, and strangely enough, even susceptibility to the common cold. It also helps with various inflammatory arthropathies, pleurisy, and respiratory infections.
Superficial cold (that is, cold applied to the outside of the body) is available in a variety of forms, including cold packs (you can purchase these at your local drug store), cold towels or compresses, ice cubes, and hydrotherapy (baths). Cold therapy is generally known to last longer than heat therapy, and should only be applied a maximum of twenty minutes at a time. Ice should never be applied directly to the skin. While using cold therapy, it’s very important to check the skin often (every five minutes or so) to assure than no damage, such as freezer burn, has been done. Wait at least an hour between cold treatments.
Amy Nutt
Source 1 Medical offers a wide variety of physical therapy supplies, massage therapy supply, physical therapy products medical and rehabilitation products.
Add comment September 13, 2011
Ideas For Halloween Costumes For Dogs
Are you ready to start the party and forgot just one little thing -
to dress up your pooch, so that he can enjoy and have fun, too?! Here
is a quick and easy last-minute Halloween costumes for dogs idea!
Please think safety when dressing up your dog in homemade pet costumes.
The costume should fit neither too tight, so your dog’s movements are
not confined, nor too loose, so he does not trip over the costume. Not
all dogs are fine with wearing a costume, so if your dog does not like
it, take off the costume immediately.
This is the easiest homemade dog costume possible, because all you need is:
* a T-Shirt that you are willing to sacrifice for your dog (for a smaller dog you may use your child’s T-shirt);
* a needle and a thread;
* a few safety pins for tailoring;
* scissors;
* your dog.
Time required: 15 minutes (excluding time required for choosing the T-shirt).
Instructions on how to make dog costume:
The front of the T-shirt goes on the dog’s back, so choose the shirt and decorations on it accordingly.
The easiest way to tailor the shirt is to have your dog standing up
right and to put the shirt on the dog. Front paws go through the
sleeves and decorations go on the dog’s back. It is likely that your
shirt would be too large on your dog, so note any excessive parts and
pin them down. You will cut them off later. Leave some space at the
bottom of the shirt so your dog can relieve himself and not dirty the
costume.
Take off the shirt (after you’ve pinned excessive parts, the shirt
should still come off easily). Adjust safety pins as necessary and cut
off excessive fabric. Turn your shirt and hand-sew the two parts
together. You can even use sewing machine, if you like. Turn back. Your homemade dog costume is ready and now you can get the party started!
Julie Morgan is a contributing author for pet apparel sew-it-yourself website homemade-pet-costumes that provides a wealth of useful tips, ideas, samples, photos and pet apparel sewing patterns for creating fun, unique and simply adorable homemade pet costumes at home!
Add comment September 5, 2011