[2007.5.4][转贴][APTX青山病院]如果背长时间感到疼痛，不妨试试热敷疗法

belmont

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/01/health/01real.html?_r=1&n=Top%2fNews%2fHealth%2fDiseases%2c%20Conditions%2c%20and%20Health%20Topics%2fPain&oref=slogin


About half of all working-age Americans experience chronic back pain at some point. For relief, many people turn to heat therapy, a cheap and age-old home remedy.


But how effective is it?


Over the years, dozens of studies have sought an answer. Most have found that applying heat in the early stages of an episode provides short-term relief, increasing mobility and reducing pain by dilating blood vessels and relaxing stiffness.


One of the largest studies looked at nine previous studies of nearly 1,200 people. The analysis, published in The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, found that five days of heat therapy — mostly in the form of wraps — significantly reduced pain after five days compared with oral placebos and other remedies. There was less evidence for the reverse technique, cold therapy, though many doctors swear by it.


But combining therapies may be the best approach. One large, randomized study in 2005, for example, compared various treatments and found that after seven days, about 70 percent of subjects who combined heat therapy with light exercise returned to “pre-injury function,” compared with 20 percent who used heat or exercise alone.


Bed rest, however, seems to be another story. Most studies have found that it helps at first but that after two days it begins to do harm, weakening muscles and increasing the risk of blood clots.



大概一半的美国工作者都体验过感觉痛在同一位置的慢性背痛。为了缓解疼痛，许多人都适用古老的、便宜而且又能够在家里做的热敷疗法。


但是为什么这个做法会对缓解疼痛这么有用呢？


多年来，许多实验都得出了一个结论。许多实验发现，在古代，背痛的时候用热敷能够给人提供短时间的缓释疼痛效果，热使背部的血管扩张，血管壁相对软化，从而使得背部疼痛减轻，使人能够行动顺畅。


有一个大型的研究，以前面已经完成的9个实验为目标，又测试了近1200人。发表在系统检查的Chchrane数据库中的这个分析发现，5天的热疗法--大多数采用热敷--在5天后，与那些接受语言性安慰和其他疗法的人相比，疼痛有十分显著的减轻。这个结果与没有什么明显证据的，但坚持冷敷疗法有用的医生们的观点正好相反。


但是混合疗法可能对于缓解背痛更有效果。2005年的一个大型的随机实验，比较了很多不同的缓解背痛的疗法，在7天后，70%的接受热疗法，同时又进行轻微运动的样本，与20%只接受热疗法的人相比，他们又回到了背痛前的行动状态。


但是，躺在床上休息，看上去也是缓解背痛的一种方法。然而，大多数实验发现，躺在床上休息能够暂时缓解背痛，但在2天后，躺在床上休息反而对缓解背痛起到了反作用，它使你的肌肉组织强健程度变弱，同时又使你血液结块、血管堵塞的风险提高了，不仅没有有效缓解背痛，还容易使你的身体受到其他伤害。