Should you ice a sprain?

On Behalf of | Nov 18, 2019 | Personal Injury |

One of the most common injuries is a sprain. It often happens to the ankle, but can happen to other areas of the body. The most common suggestion from medical professionals upon suffering a sprain is to put ice on it, according to The Washington Post. If your doctor in Mississippi tells you to put ice on your injured ankle, you may want to object.

Researchers looking into the body’s healing mechanisms found out that ice may do more harm than good in some situations. The idea behind icing a sprain is to help reduce inflammation. Swelling is long-thought to be a bad thing that you want to reduce. However, research now shows that inflammation is actually the immune system’s first responder.

Your body needs the inflammation to begin the healing process. If you stop it by applying ice, then you are slowing down healing. Essentially, you may extend the time it takes for you to get back on your feet.

Do these findings mean that you should never apply ice to an injury? No, they do not. In fact, the research is not 100% conclusive. It is in the new stages, but it does offer some promising insights that researchers have proven to be correct.

Even so, ice is the best natural pain killer. So, if you are in a lot of pain and ice helps reduce that, then, by all means, use it. However, if you can avoid using ice to stop inflammation, you may notice you heal faster. This information is for education and is not legal advice.

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