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The Need For Speed
It is critically important to apply ice and compression immediately after an injury. Studies show that recovery from an injury is directly related to how soon ice and compression are applied. More Ice Therapy facts »
What Happens When You Are Injured?
The body responds to sports injuries in a variety of ways that help to protect and heal the injury. And while the physiological response to the primary injury is aimed toward repairing damaged tissue, the body’s response can actually cause more damage if RICES is not applied immediately after injury.
Primary Injury Response
- Damaged tissue swells and causes pain.
- Additional swelling is caused by ruptured blood vessels.
- Blood vessels quickly clot (in minor injuries) and swelling slows.
- The mass of damaged tissue is known as a “hematoma” or what you see as a bruise or contusion.
Secondary Injury
- As the hematoma swells it causes additional pain in undamaged tissue.
- The body responds to the pain and damage by attempting to remove the hematoma.
- Swelling from the primary injury decreases blood flow to the injured area by compressing blood vessels to the point where they can no longer transport enough oxygen to the injured area.
- Healthy tissue surrounding the injured area begins to suffocate from lack of oxygen, thereby causing a secondary tissue death.
- Fluid flow between cells is also restricted from swelling and more fluids will attempt to enter tissue surrounding the injury, causing these cells to burst and die.
This secondary swelling of an injury is known as an edema, and the tissue damage that accompanies this swelling is collectively known as the "secondary hypoxic injury".
Secondary tissue death is what RICES aims to eliminate. The application of cold and compression immediately following an injury can help to reduce this secondary tissue die-off from edema.
Decreased metabolism through cold therapy is the mechanism which prevents secondary hypoxic injury. Ice Right provides the cold therapy and compression necessary to prevent secondary tissue death from swelling.
Cold Therapy And Rehabilitation
The primary benefit of cold therapy to rehabilitation is an earlier return to activity. By reducing the pain associated with an injury, mobility can be increased and benefits can be realized from modest exercise of the injured area.
In other words, cold eases pain, which allows you to exercise sooner after your injury. Exercise increases blood flow and other fluid circulation and helps to hasten normal muscular functions sooner.
While this sounds simple, the importance of a quick return to activity cannot be overstated.
The reduction of pain has another important side effect. When muscles endure pain the body causes the muscles to spasm, a rapid contraction and relaxation of the muscle. These spasms frequently occur to a degree that is not noticed by the injured person. Aside from the obvious benefit of pain reduction, it has been shown that using ice and compression to relieve muscle spasms during recovery can also help to shorten recovery time by allowing the muscle to completely relax.