I read a thread on Facebook yesterday that I thought was really interesting. A Facebook friend of mine posed the question, what is the research on icing directly after an injury?

This topic is one of those things that is “common knowledge”. Everyone knows you ice an injury after it happens. You’ll even find the ice bath a commonplace practice in athletics to promote recovery. 

However, as we continue to learn and research we find that our “common knowledge” is sometimes incorrect. Which means we need to evolve our recomendations. 

It’s hard to change “common knowledge” though because humans have a tendency to resist change. A lot of times we are unwilling to accept and process new information as accurate and as a result stay stuck in our ways. 

Based on recent research icing after an injury may not be as beneficial as we once thought. It does help with pain control and feels good, but by icing we could actually be slowing the healing process. Taking an anti-inflammatory could also slow the healing process because the inflammation actually serves to increase healing. 

Even more interesting is the doctor who was instrumental in establishing icing as a part of the RICE protocol has since retracted it. 

So takeaways are. 

• Ice if you need pain relief but use it sparingly. 
• Avoid anti-inflammatories and use analgesics
• Elevate to reduce swelling
• Get back to moving and regular activity as quickly as possible as tolerated by pain

If you are interested in reading the thread yourself or reading Dr. Mirkin’s retraction check the links below. 

https://www.facebook.com/markrjyoung/posts/10154955259691285

http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/why-ice-delays-recovery.html