Hi Alexyc

Inflammation is not a bad process and should be involved in any healing process of the body. As with most processes in the body, it is the body that over reacts and allows inflammation to run out of control which hinders the process by allowing excess scar tissue to form over the injured site.

What does this mean....

Lets take a strain injury to a quad muscle. In the acute phase you place ice on the injury while taping the knee in a flexed position (quads are in their most extended length). The ice will limit the amount of leakage from the local blood vessels through reflexed constriction, while the muscle, in its lengthen position, allows the scar tissue to form appropriately so as not to create a scab that rips or tears off through loads in normal ranges of motion.

If you allow the inflammation to run rampant, then a wad of tissue will form over the injury and will be easily injured again through loads in normal ranges of motion. This will allow a state of re-injury and re-inflammation to be experienced by the patient many many times over the course of their lifes.

Anti-inflammatories are a two edge sword and should be approached intelligently. ICE is the best Wikipedia reference-linkanti-inflammatory out there and is site specific so as not to affect any other sites that are healing. Anti-inflammatories are great if the patient realizes that they have not fully recovered and stay away from activity (especially activity that caused the injury). It is safer, in my opinion, to use ice only so the patient knows when the body does not want to go through a range of motion because of further injury.

As for anti-inflammatories that are used in chronic cases of inflammation, I just leave that to the specialists. I know what I would do but there is the quality of life factor in this situation.

Adamo