Since the 1970’s the general consensus amongst medical professionals when dealing with an acute injury has been to prescribe the acronym P.R.I.C.E. This has been believed to be the ideal way to treat a soft tissue injury in its acute phase. For those who don’t know what it stands for: It’s..

Protect – Protect the injured person and the area being treated

Rest – Allow an injury time to heal. Being brave and playing through the pain is not wise. Ensure rehabilitation time to allow even a small injury to heal.

Ice – By applying ice either from a freezer, an Ice Pack or even a pack of peas on to the injury, you will reduce the pain and inflammation. It is advisable to wrap the ice pack in a cloth to prevent cold burns on the skin.

Compression – Compression of the swollen area will help to reduce the swelling. Using a stretchy bandage.

Elevation – Elevating the injured area so that it is above the heart reduces the flow of blood to the area and reduces swelling. Again, ensure the patient is completely comfortable and do not elevate an injured area if this causes excessive pain.

The Ice part of the acronym was believed to reduce inflammation allowing a faster recovery. Since then though research has found that it is counteractive to ice an injury and can actually inhibit the healing response. In fact the Harvard physician who originally published the article in the 1978 journal of sports medicine, has since issued a statement recanting his advice to ice an injury.

Inflammation is phase 1 of the three stages of healing. The phases being Inflammation, Repair, Remodel. Originally the thinking was to limit this inflammation to allow quicker recovery, the reality is that by applying ice onto an area it doesn’t limit the inflammation it just slows it from working its way to the area. On top of this the ice increases tissue damage, muscle cell damage and stem cell damage, which leads to further inflammatory response and and extra work for the body to heal the affected area.

It’s true that there is perceived pain relief post ice, this is due to a numbness of the area and a decrease in nerve sensitivity, but it has not helped with the actual cause of the problem.

The concept of icing an injury is backed by no research and despite the area being reviewed by four of the world leading publications British Journal of sports medicine (2012)  The Journal of emergency medicine (2008) The American Journal of sports medicine (2004) The journal of athletic medicine research (2004) The conclusion is that although popular there is no evidence that the use of ice on damaged tissue will prevent inflammation or swelling or help to evacuate swelling.

I will post an article soon on what to do instead!

Happy training! Step away from the Frozen peas!
Ref. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/27704555/