I was on a flight to LA and I had screwed my back up by standing up too much; working on a film at the weekend.  I had taken my painkillers (strong ones!!) but they weren’t having any effect.  I was three hours into an eleven hour flight.  In vain I went to the stewardess and asked for another pillow to try and get comfortable, she told me there weren’t any and I burst into tears.  It was too much for me.  Luckily she took pity and gave me a hot water bottle.  She also told me that ice water works even better – yeah right.  But I sat down with the hot water bottle and conked right out (much to the relief of the poor guy next to me).

In LA I asked a concierge if they had a masseur or something and he recommended the Beverley Hot Springs in Korea Town, so I decided to give it a try.  Well I waded into a natural hot spring pool and it was heaven – all that heat getting into my back – yum!  Then, for fun, I waded into the cold pool – inch by inch – and when I finally put my back in there – oh my – I can’t tell you how good it was – complete pain wipe out – I highly, highly recommend it.  Should you ever find yourself in a situation – run yourself a cold bath – as cold as you can take it – or even a cold shower on the affected area – it’s damn good and unlike painkillers you can have as many cold baths as you like.

The cold also works to reduce inflammation so it’s actually working on the source as well as the symptoms!