Introduction to Hilotherapy- Ice/Cold therapy for injury and pain management

Hilotherapy which is also known as cold compression, is the use of ice or cold water for managing pain and injury. It reduces pain, muscle inflammations and also improve the condition of the skin. Nowadays, people often interchange when to use hot water therapy for injury management to when to use ice or cold water theraphy for pain and injury management. Though, both works better for pain and injury management if applied appropriately. That is why am writing this article to guide us on how to best use ice or cold water therapy for pain and injury management.

In this article, I will be discussing on how to use this techniques, and also when to use it to achieve a better result out of it. Application of ice or heat to treat injuries or pain can be very effective to provide relief from pains, aches and quicken the healing process of an injury if applied at the right time.

ICE/ COLD WATER THERAPY

Using ice or cold water on injuries work well, depending on the level of your injury and pain severity and the part of the body that is been affected, but works well for acute injury. This method has become very popular as a form of treatments for pain relief and acute injuries in orthopedic medicine. Ice or cold water is often use on acute injury management to reduce or lower the temperature of the injured tissues, and in this process the tissue's metabolic rate will be reduced and helps the tissues condition to improved and survive in time. It also prevents bloods from circulating to the injury spot of the body which will can cause inflammation and swelling that will slow down the healing process of an injury.
Using this techniques is very simple, effective and affordable even for self-care when no one is around to help. Minor injuries like strains, sprains,back pains, neck pain, aching, tenderness, leg pain, shoulder pain, wrist pain, spasms, knee pains and other acute injuries.

How To Use

Using hilotherapy for pain and acute injury management requires some steps to be followed in order to achieve a better result. This basic principle for this treatment is known as PRICE therapy, which i will explain:
P - Protection
R - Rest
I - Ice
C - Compression
E - Elevation
NOTE: the principle of using PRICE should be used for the first 48 hours- 72 hours immediately after the injury to control or minimise the swelling to the injured area.

Protection

immediately after the injury, leave any activities that leads to that injury and protect the injury spot on your body. If you need help for example in case of sports, immediately call for help to get you out of the scene to avoid further injury.
There are several protection method such as using ace bandage, protective tape, over-the-counter brace, alumimium splint. Reason for using any of these protectives is to secure the injured area against further injury.

Rest

rest is the second of the steps in PRICE principle. resting aids quick healing processes without any disturbance to the injured area. engaging in physical activities after you have just sustained injury without rest will increase the circulation to the injured area which can later leads to tissue damage of the same area and may also cause inflammation. engaging in physical activities immediately after rest could also be compare to using hot water theraphy to immediate injury which is very wrong. doing so will only cause more damage. Rest in this sense coukd also be seen as immediate suspension all physical activities or factors that has contributed to the injury.
Rest is recommended during the initial 24-48 hours after an injury. after this 24- 48 hours modified physical activities can be organised. If rest has not taken place, healing process for injury use to take longer than expected and the victim could also stand the risk of chronic inflammation of the injured part of the body. Abnormal healing could also take place is rest is not included. Even without injury, our body system need daily rest for several hours per day for our cell to regenerate and to promote health and physical well-being.

Ice/ Cold Water

Here is another component of P.R.I.C.E. principle. Applying an ice pack to the affected part of the body for 20 minutes every 2-3 hours in 48-78 hours will help. Never apply the ice pack directly to the skin to avoid further damages to the underlined tinning tissues and killing of skin cells, and it can also cause frosbite and ischemia. wrap the ice pack in a towel or soft cleath cloth before applying to the injured part. application of ice( excessive uses) can also delay the healing process, so do everything according to specification to avoid any further damage to your skin and tissues.

Why we use Ice
ice is used for managing acute injury and pain because, it is very effective at reducing inflammatory/ swelling of the injured part and also slow than the flow of blood from rushing to the injured spot. It also improve the condition of the skin and facilitate quick healing process of the injury.

Compression

After the application of ice, a compression wrap should be applied to the injured area. Compression serves as a mechanical barrier to minimize swelling of the injured part. Use can use compression materials like elastic bondages of different sizes. the sizes of the bondage should selected according to width and length of the injured part. You can get the Elastic bondages or injury tape from any pharmacy near you or visit E-commerce site like Ebay.com or Amazon.com to even purchase at a cheaper price.

Elevation

immediately post-injury, keep the injured part raised above the level ofyour heart to reduce the inflow of blood to the area so that it will not swell. to do this, put the injured part on a pillow or soft pillow-like material to elevate the part above your heart level. doing this will also reduce your pain.

Immobilization

immobilization will help prevent further damage by reducing your movement. doing this also will reduce the risk of muscle swelling, spasm among others.

Application of warm towel

after the PRICE principle and 78 hours of treating the injury, if the injury is healing, you can now apply warm towel of the injured part to help ease pain and stiffness. you can always ask for help in all the processses, because you might not be able to do it by yourself.

In all After all this, after full recovery form injury, you have to engage the body in exercise, for the body to return to the normal mode it used to be. gentle xercise will help to make movement become easier for you.
I hope you have learnt from this tips.for further study you can check on the following references:

REFERENCES

Consider Heat or Ice
Faster Exercise Recovery
Cold Compression
Treating Sports Injuries with Ice and Heat
PRICE therapy

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