Yesterday while I was out for a jog my thoughts started to wander to the half marathon coming up in July, I began to visualise myself finishing the 21.1kms, the big time screen reading 1hr40mins as I bolted for the line… all of a sudden I was brought back to reality after mis-stepping, rolling my ankle and falling to the ground rather clumsily. It hurt a fair bit as I brushed off my grazes and picked myself up and hobbled home…I looked for the lesson and found it was yet another reminder for me to keep my thoughts in the present moment not to mention that fact that I was also underslept

So what do I do with my increasingly swollen ankle? Do I apply the RICE method? Do I ICE it?

Today I’m going to raise some interesting points against icing injuries. In the past I was always a big fan of icing, as a personal trainer I was taught that it was the right thing to do when a gym member injured themselves, it was the quickest way to bring about healing… Well no wrong.

Do we want to apply ice and stop the normal inflammatory process that helps heal the body? Of course not! That would be counter-intuitive right?

So why is icing an injury (particularly ligament damage) a bad idea?

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr Sherwin Ho, Surgery Director of the Sports Medicine Fellowship Program published articles in 1990 on the negative effects of ice specifically to do with ligament damage.

As explained….Dr. Sherwin Ho and associates, put a commercially-available ice wrap on one knee for 20 minutes, and on the opposite knee a wrap was placed at room temperature. The knees were then injected with dye and scanned for blood flow. The study showed that all iced knees demonstrated a decrease in arterial and soft tissue blood flow, as well as decreased bone uptake of the dye, which is a reflection of changes in both the bone blood flow and metabolic rate.

In the landmark study done at the University of Hawaii Dr. Sherwin Ho and associates research concluded that blood flow to soft tissues and skeletal metabolism decreased dramatically after only five minutes of icing a knee injury. To make matters worse and to test our belief systems ever further, he found that continuing to ice the knee for an extra 25 minutes decreased blood flow and skeletal metabolism another 400 percent! Now that’s hard to ignore. This lack of blood flow was found to significantly reduce the rate of healing and not only increase the chance of incomplete healing but also the chance of re-injury.

A few of the affects of using ice to treat injuries are:
Decrease in much-needed blood flow to the injury
Decrease in inflammatory response & local edema protection (swelling) which is a natural healing response.
The loss of protective pain sensibility after local icing which can lead to more chronic injury

One extremely important factor to remember is that ice deadens or decreases the pain sustained from an injury, this can be very dangerous because our injury can start to feel better before it’s healed and unwittingly we return to our sport only to worsen the injury, so essentially ice lulls us into a false sense of security. When a nerve comes in contact with ice, it is no longer accurately able to perceive pain. This can lead to long term or permanent ligament damage.

So is the RICE method (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) the way to go? Not only is RICE prescribed worldwide but generally anti-inflamatory drugs are recommended along with it, anti-inflammatory drugs are never an option as they are responsible for a great deal of disease development in the body. One thing I keep pondering is….Why is swelling around the joint perceived as a bad thing?

So lets look at RICE…

Rest – yes this is good but to be more specific…I would replace this with Cross-training and active low intensity rest with of course as much sleep as you care for.
Ice – No, replace with sun
Compression – Supporting the joint can be a good idea as long as blood flow isn’t impeded
Elevation – I don’t recommend doing this as elevation decreases blood flow to the area and lengthens healing time

I came up with a quick acronym, i tried to make it more specific but it would be hard to remember, my original one came to S.H.A.C.S or something.

So here it is….F.R.E.S.H.A…
F – Fruit! Eat a low acid diet to facilitate healing – LFRV
R – Rest & Sleep as much as you care for to allow for maximum healing, 10hrs a night when injured is a good goal and if you need more then get it! We can never OVERsleep. Just like we can never OVERpee.
E – Exercise differently – Cross-train to rest injury and to use different muscles/ligaments
S – Sunbake to increase blood flow & healing through the natural warmth of the sun
H – Hydrate more than usual to assist body in acid removal, at least 3 litres a day
A – Alkaline attitude, be positive and patient with your healing, see your injury healed up before it is, accept the fact that you may have to adjust your exercise routine temporarily

Ofcourse the best idea is to AVOID injuries all together by getting sufficient sleep every night (sometimes that’s 12hrs!), cross training, being hydrated so you are peeing clear at least 10 times a day, getting enough fruity carbohydrates – for me that is sometimes 45 bananas a day and keeping fat intake low, nude sunbaking and focusing on the positive side of life…if you need a break, listen to your body before it well…um…breaks

A few questions to ask yourself when you leave this blog article are…
Would we find ice anywhere in the tropics, where “mankind” originated?
What would we have done with a ligament/soft tissue injury in the tropics without ice?

Ok I’m off for now, watch your step my friends and stay off the ice!

Lovefreelee