Ice Ice Baby

Anyone who knows anything about acute injuries has heard of the RICE acronym, that is, rest, ice, compress and elevate. Ladies and gentleman I am here to tell you there is a reason you’ve had RICE crammed down your throat (pun intended). RICE works. This is why.

Rest- Rest is arguably the most important factor in the RICE acronym. Rest allows the body time for inflammation cycles to carry out healing. There is however a misconception that rest means immobilization. This is incorrect. Rest means avoiding serious trauma while trying to maintain/improve soft tissue quality and not losing range of motion in any affected joints. Take an ankle sprain for example, if the ankle is completely immobilized for long periods of time not only will the body’s natural compensatory responses be choked out, atrophy will being to take place in the uninjured connective tissue. This of course leads to an even weaker joint, and a longer recovery time.

Ice- Many athletes have terrible memories of being forced to sit in 30 degree ice tubs after football practice, but I can assure you, ice used properly is your friend. It’s not exactly immerging science that ice helps swelling go down. Ice acts as a local vasoconstrictor which limits blood flow (inflammation) to the site of application.

Compress- Compression is another method used to reduce swelling, and it’s not very complicated. Any 4th grader who watched Bill Nye The Science Guy understands that fluid takes the path of least resistance. Compression on the injured site resists your body’s acute injury response to send gratuitous amounts of blood to the injury site.

Elevation- Whether it’s on the basketball court or in the Physics lecture hall, I have always hated gravity. What’s to like about an invisible force that limits you from doing just about every cool thing there is to do on this planet. In the case of acute injuries however, gravity it your friend. When you raise your injured limb above your heart gravity will cause less blood flow to enter the injured area. Pretty cool right? Gravity, I guess you’re not that bad…

While this isn’t anything ground breaking information I hope this post will serve as a clear and concise explanation of how to treat acute injuries. The best way to avoid inflammation is to not get injured but if you simply must sprain your ankle RICE is the way to go.

-Will Hawkins