Is using ice bad for injuries?
Sometimes, people say that ice can interfere with the healing process because it reduces the body's natural inflammatory response. However, the cooling effect of ice only lasts a few minutes and does not directly effect the how the inflammatory chemicals work in the tissue. What the cooling effect does is really target the swelling through decreasing circulation to the area.
Here, there's a balance to be drawn as excessive inflammation and swelling can cause secondary injuries. Ice is therefore a safe way of limiting further damage after an acute injury while not impeding the healing process.
In our experience ice can be very effective if applied immediately after an injury, to limit the extent of the injury, or during the recovery phase to help with pain and swelling.
How to apply ice to an injury: Immediate treatment
Ice can be used immediately after sustaining an injury to limit the amount of bleeding and swelling that occur. This is important since both excessive bleeding and excessive swelling will cause an increase in the pressure on the surrounding tissue and cells.
This increased pressure can cut off the blood and oxygen supply to the adjacent, uninjured cells causing them to die. This is referred to as a secondary injury because it wasn’t caused by the same incident that caused the first injury.
In short, excessive swelling or bleeding can cause an injury to be much more severe and to take longer to heal.
Application:
-
Apply the Muscle Ice Pack Gel directly onto your skin.
-
Rub in and leave on.