which is the right treatment to use for knee soreness, heating pad or cold packs?

Hi Irie Karlo,

I also suffer from sore knees - due to an old sports injury.  In
general my physical therapist suggest cold packs when the knees are
sore and swollen (to lessen the swelling), heat packs when the knees
are sore but not swollen (to increase blood flow).  The general advice
is to use ice when you've suffered a recent injury, and heat for a
chronic condition.  Here are some websites that offer advice:

The Physician and Sportsmedicine: Giving Injuries the Cold Treatment
http://www.physsportsmed.com/issues/1996/03_96/cold.htm

About.com Sports Medicine: Heat vs. Cold Therapy for Injuries
http://sportsmedicine.about.com/cs/rehab/a/heatorcold.htm

About.com Orthopedics: Ice or Heat?
http://orthopedics.about.com/cs/sportsmedicine/a/iceorheat.htm

Mecohealth: Arthritis: Heat and Cold
http://www.medcohealth.com/medco/consumer/ehealth/ehsarticle.jsp?articleID=111014&topicID=Osteoarthritis&ltSess=y&ehsSectionAttribute=Self_Care

I found these websites by doing the following search of the Google
engine: cold therapy when (yes, this is an odd search - I found that a
simple search for "cold heat therapy knees" found a lot of products
but not much helpful advice).  You might also find the MedlinePlus
health topic for Knee Injuries
(http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/kneeinjuriesanddisorders.html)
helpful.

Please let me know if you need further help with this question!

Librariankt

What's causing the soreness?

Do you know?

knee soreness is caused by old age.it may be arthritis.

If it's arthritis then I would suggest that you try Chondroitin
combined with Glucosamine. (They work better when taken together.)

It's worked wonders for my dog who was crippled with arthritis a few
years ago. Now she bounds around like a 2-year-old.

However, rather than just suspect arthritis, a professional opinion
would be advisable.

(By the way, I'm not a doctor - just a Well Wisher.)

All the Best!

The rule of thumb (or rule of knee) that I've always heard is:  ice
pack at first sign of trouble, to minimize swelling.  But after time
has passed (and all the swelling that is going to happen has
happened), then heat is best.

Hope you're feeling better soon.

paf