An investigation was designed to assess and compare the effects of therapeutic forms of heat and cold on the pain threshold in the normal adults. The volunteers of this study were 34 healthy adults. We used hot-packs for heat and criojet air c 100E(medizintechnik GMBH, Germany) for cold. The pain threshold was quantatively measured by means of an electrical stimulation and distance of two-point discrimination by compass according to skin temperature. And then we assessed their relation to BMI(body mass index).

The results were as follows:

1) heat and cold were both found to raise the normal pain threshold and distance of two-point discrimination significantly and cryotherapy was significantly more effective than heat.

2) In higher BMI, the distance of two-point discrimination was significantly increased at each skin temperature.