• Question: how does ice help a injured ankle?

    Asked by leeromecarlisleunited to Helen, Jenni, Mark, Martin, Stu on 15 Jun 2011. This question was also asked by aldredkwh.
    • Photo: Jenni Tilley

      Jenni Tilley answered on 14 Jun 2011:

      There’s lots of debate about the benefits of ice versus heat. Ice cools the damage down and helps reduce the swelling, whereas heat, relaxed muscles and increases blood flow so can help the body fix itself, but can increase the swelling… according to my physio anyway!

    • Photo: Martin Lindley

      Martin Lindley answered on 15 Jun 2011:

      when your body is injured one of the responses is swelling.

      swelling can reduce your ability to move and so protects your body like wearing a cast.

      however too much swelling means that you spend a lot of time waiting for it to go down before you can start to rehab and that means it s a long time before you can be active again.

      So, ice reduces swelling and on that basis it helps speed recovery ! However, Jenni and her physio are correct….ice reduces the blood flow to the area and as such all the metabolites needed to repair the injury are reduced as well.

      So, we are back to balance again, ice is great in the first 24 hrs follwoing injury but after that it is probably better to avoid it !

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