You’re injured. The next few hours are critical to your long term recovery. What do you do?
You have no time to waste… so let me give you a super fast recipe for injury care, and the justification behind each initiative.
Compression and elevation: Bandage the injury and elevate it.
Why it works: Removes excess fluid via lymph.
Cryotherapy: Ice the injury.
Why it works: Causes constriction of the blood vessels (vasoconstriction), reducing spasm, pain and bleeding. If in doubt, ice (for pretty much everything ‘cept frostbite!). There has been recent advice to avoid ice. The research however still supports the use of cryotherapy. Until independant and well constructed research can determine a better way, icing will remain our recommendation.
Medicate: Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs).
Why they work: Inhibit prostaglandins (involved in inflammation). Most effective during an accute inflammatory response (immediately after injury).
Treated promptly and correctly, inflammatory injuries can be resolved in days. Ignored and abused, they can hang around for months. ‘A stitch in time’ and all that.
