Ankle Ligaments

[Adriaan]

The application of ice to an injury,in the acute phase can substantially decrease the extent of the damage. It achieves this in a number of different ways:

1. Decreases the amount of bleeding by vasocontriction into the injury site and so lessens swelling
2. Reduces pain
3. Reduces muscle spasm
4. Reduces the risk of cell death by decreasing the rate of metabolism

Thanks for this explanation for the effect of ice-application. Do not forget that after a while the nerves conduction speed decreases as response of the ice-application (= pain reduction) and after a while you get a vasodilatation (because the vasoconstrictic muscles need nerve activity to contract).

The question was more about the effect of changing between ICE and HEAT. Any good explanation why we should do this (beside: 'I have good results with this method in practice')

Thanks Adriaan