Modern medicine has been grappling with changes to literature about ice and recovery for the last few years. Historically we have seen evidence suggesting ice is an integral part of recovery as it reduces inflammation, swelling and provides safe and effective analgesia – see studies here (links).
However, the medical community is bringing out new evidence that may suggest that icing may slow the healing process for ACUTE injuries. However, systematic reviews have suggested there is no clear evidence to separate the evidence in each favour.
In fact, there is concrete evidence regarding ice and analgesia, which is often what most people use ice for, to provide short-term relief. Of course, ice isn’t going to fix a certain ailment you have, however it does provide you the ability to improve short term pain and reduce swelling. This may allow you to increase the quality of life, do more exercise or rehabilitation after surgical procedures.
IceRight is committed to updating you on any new evidence and as it becomes available we will relay this to you via this page, so stay tuned for updates.