[Comparison between heat and cold in basic excitatory responses inhealthy subjects]

ABSTRACT

Heat and Cold are among the most important and effective methods inrehabilitation of neuromusculoskeletal disorders. However there has been a controversy concerning thephysiological and clinical effects of heat and cold. In this article, the physiological effects of heat and coldhave been assessed. Furthermore, the effect of these modalities on electrical stimulation thresholds has beenstudied.This research that is a semi-experimental study, has been performed on 30 healthymale and female students aged 20-30. After changing the skin temperature to 20 and 44°C by ice and hotpacks respectively, all 4 stimulation thresholds [sensory, motor, pain and max pain] were recorded by the useof electrical stimulation.The present research indicated that heat modalities had no effect on stimulation thresholds but thecold caused a considerable increase in all of the electrical thresholds and the effect sustained for momentsafter removing cold modality.Cold modalities change stimulation thresholds and in this regard they can be considered aseffective ways for treating musculoskeletal disorders