# R.I.C.E. vs M.E.T.H.



## cyclelicious (Oct 7, 2008)

Why ice doesn't help an injury

Research shows that icing an injury may even make it worse. This article was posted awhile ago and is interesting to share.



> Gary Reinl has an ice pack at home that he's saving for a special occasion. Despite decades of experience in the sports medicine industry, he's not keeping it in the freezer in case someone has a sprained ankle that begins to swell. Quite the contrary. He is holding onto the ice pack for the day when no one asks for ice to nurse injuries. "My goal," he says, "is to take it to the Museum of Questionable Medical Devices and have it displayed there."
> 
> The first instinct of countless coaches and parents is to get a cold pack on an injury right away. Icing restricts blood flow to the area, which helps numb pain and keep initial swelling from getting out of control. But Reinl is part of a small chorus of voices trying to convince people that what they have believed for decades might be wrong. Years ago, he was exploring the literature to see how he could use ice more effectively when treating injuries, when he realized the research was inconsistent. "It didn't make any sense to me," he says. "I thought that, if everybody is icing, it must be good." He has since written a book, Iced! The Illusionary Treatment Option, and dubbed himself "the anti-ice man."
> 
> ...


Sauce: Why ice doesn't help an injury and could even make it worse


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## Ericmopar (Aug 23, 2003)

All I know is this. If it hadn't been for ice packs after my hernia surgery, I would have been in total misery for a couple of weeks. 
I swelled up 2" (50mm) after my surgery and was miserable, until one of the post op nurses yanked the blanket off of me to see what was wrong. Never say "oh crap" around a post op nurse, they will go into emergency mode and pull things like blankets out of your hand, while yelling "show me, show me..." LOL. 
Within minutes of applying the first cool-pack, I was able to go back to sleep.


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## CUP-TON (Dec 7, 2016)

+1 for Meth here. It makes me feel like I'm on top of the world.
Opps, wait, wrong meth. ah, never mind.

I have never been a fan of putting ice on an injury except maybe for helping numb it right after the injury occurred. Even then most times it does not feel like it helps.
After that it's always elevate it when possible, put some heat on it if it feels right and start moving it as soon as I am able.

In the immortal words of Mitch Hedberg
"RICE is great if you are really hungry and want to eat 2000 of something"


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## Jayem (Jul 16, 2005)

Recovering right now, but I can't use ice anyway due to the brace. 

I've always suspected this as well, that your body sends blood to that area for a purpose and reducing the bloodflow wouldn't make the recovery time shorter, but longer. That said, there are times when the swelling is so bad that you need to do something or the muscle/ligaments/etc. are all jammed up and it hinders recovery. At the least, I don't think it's cut and dry and applies to every situation (ice). I thought I remembered seeing another few articles on this same subject somewhere else.


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## drwx (Jun 4, 2011)

Sent from my Pixel 3 XL using Tapatalk


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## Pisgah (Feb 24, 2006)

I'm convinced that icing is very important during the 24 - 48 hours after injury. For example, I've injured my hands several times (soft tissue), and the symptoms from injuries that were not iced immediately lasted longer. I've had good results from ice with other injuries.

Caveat: Icing after injury requires dedication to on/off cycles continuously. I also get as close as I can to frostbite without injuring my skin.


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## Impetus (Aug 10, 2014)

All of that original quoted article is dead on.
Ice and immobility is possibly worse for an injury than 'ignoring it". 

The vasoconstriction and blunting of metabolic activity and healing response is terrible for injured tissues.


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## SMR (Apr 20, 2004)

So how long do you need to elevate an injured area, how often?


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## 127.0.0.1 (Nov 19, 2013)

I don't know about this..

using MLB pitchers as an example is flawed. if they ice, it works. period.

tens of millions of salary per season, to hundreds of millions for the team and league across several seasons, depend on a pitchers producing outs...if there was a better way to heal those arms and shoulders, they'd be doing it. you bet there is hard science behind it, and also a hundred years of actual pitchers, injuries, pitching experts and coaches squeezing performance and teaching pitchers how to recover. if you see an mlb pitcher icing, then that is what is needed. don't forget there is massage here and a ton of other things done besides just ice it.



it depends on the specific injury, location, how it occured, and what the plan is. 
also what is available now...ice is easy to obtain, so is immediately usable. benefit of using ice and it's immediate effects outweighs anything else for that moment

not possible to categorically say 'ice bad' without naming a specific injury, location, how and why.


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