Cryotherapy

The therapeutic use of cold, cryotherapy, was discussed earlier but will be reviewed here because of its importance for foot problems. Like many therapies, ice can be very helpful when properly applied, but can do harm when used incorrectly. Cooling an area of injury can help reduce inflammation and muscle tightness or spasm, both of which help reduce pain and speed the recovery process.

Ice should never be applied directly to your foot. Instead, use a moist cloth or towel on the skin with the ice applied on top of it. A moist towel helps transfer the cooling benefits, whereas a dry one can partly insulate your skin from the cold. In this way, the cooling effect can reach all areas including, possibly, the bones. The ice can be placed in a plastic bag, with smaller pieces of ice working better than large ice cubes, or you can use a freezer gel pack. Be sure the gel pack is not leaking, as that can be irritating to the skin. In an emergency, a package of frozen peas or other items in your freezer may work just fine.

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Applying ice to your foot produces four stages of sensation you can easily feel:

First, the area will become cool, and you will feel this cold effect immediately.

Second, you will feel a prickling or itchy sensation, sometimes described as a burning itch.

Following this you will get an achy feeling—in some cases this can become painful.

The last stage is numbness—the point when you know it’s time to immediately remove the ice.

Apply ice until you feel numbness, or for no more than about twenty minutes. When in doubt, remove the ice. The therapeutic effects occur in the early and mid- stage, and risk of ice injury increases in the later stage. You can apply the ice again once the skin temperature has returned to normal, although once every hour or two is sufficient for most situations.

In addition to using cold on the foot, cooling tight muscles in the leg can sometimes help the foot. For example, in cases of heel pain or Achilles pain caused by tight gastrocnemius and soleus muscles, the use of cryotherapy on these leg muscles may be helpful. The other muscle group that commonly becomes tight is the plantar muscles on the bottom of the foot, where ice can also be used.