Do you Ice an Injury?
Conventional guidelines for injury recovery have been the ICE or RICE protocols. RICE stands for:
Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation
In the past few years, researchers, including the British Journal of Sports Medicine have been aiming to shift this thinking toward a more functional approach now known as PEACE and LOVE. These acronyms stand for:
- Protection
- Elevation
- Avoid anti-inflammatories
- Compression
- Education
And that can be shortened to:
- Load
- Optimism
- Vacularization
- Exercise
Applying this to a real life injury
Some of the noteworthy differences are highlighted below, in PEACE, for the acute phase:
- Minimizing use or limiting movement of an injured body part for 1-3 days, but not minimizing movement beyond that point
- Avoiding anti-inflammatories. The body wants to heal itself and using anti-inflammatories immediately prohibits the body’s natural healing mechanisms and can prolong injury
- An emphasis on the patient seeking out evidence based information and educating themselves on their injuries to equip patients to have an understanding of their body
And then LOVE for the more sub-acute and chronic phases including:
- Early addition of muscle and tendon loading and exercising
- Minimizing pain and loading, aka strengthening, the area wisely
- A focus on vascularization, or performing cardiovascular exercise to increase blood flow to affected areas
It pays to be aware of the latest soft-tissue injury recommendations so you can get back to function as soon as possible! If you need help in managing a soft tissue injury, call ProActive for an appointment with one of our Physical or Occupational Therapists.
References
[1] , Soft-tissue injuries simply need PEACE and LOVE
