RICE Treatment Method
The Western treatment for sports injuries is known as RICE: rest, ice, compression, and elevation. Rest and elevation is recommended.
Ice and compression are NOT recommended.
You might have tried the RICE treatment and wonder why you still have pain, why your injured area remains weak, or why it hurts more in cold weather, even after a healing period of weeks or months. The RICE approach to treating injuries often leaves the athlete with unhealed injuries, chronic pain, and a cycle of reinjury.
Rest is needed to avoid irritating the injury and elevation aids in draining excess fluid. But ice and compression are NOT recommended because they do not help repair damaged tissues and in essence only mask the pain. In Chinese sports medicine ice is not used and is considered a culprit in injuries that don’t heal well.
Ice keeps everything in the area frozen, causing the stagnation of blood and fluids and the contraction of muscles, tendons and ligaments. Compression squeezes the tissues, thereby limiting blood flow and causing blood to stagnate and congeal above and below the injury. These side effects slow healing and increase the chance of re-injury and the development of chronic pain.
Anti-Inflammatory Pills and Steroid Injections
Anti-inflammatory pills & steroid injections are NOT recommended.
Anti-inflammatory medications and steroid injections may reduce some pain and inflammation, but at a high price because masking the pain in this way can lead to increased risk of injury.
The risk is that when you return to your usual level of activity, the medication masks the warning signs of the underlying condition, causing the condition to become aggravated, leading to further inflammation and irritation. The usage of anti-inflammatory medications and steroid injections can cause a vicious cycle of chronic inflammation, pain, weakness, and repeated injury.
Repeated reinjury and chronic inflammation can cause normal tissue to become replaced with scar tissue. Continued inflammation can cause calcium to be deposited in the muscles, tendons, and joints, creating more inflammation, and continuing the cycle of reinjury.
