| By: Julie Eibensteiner PT, DPT, CSCS You may be surprised by what it does and does not do. ——————————- THE MAIN BENEFIT OF ICE: It modulates pain. 1. It slows down nerve conduction at the local level. Nerve endings can’t respond as well or as fast. E v e r y t h i n g – m o v e s – s l o w e r – w h e n – c o l d. 2. Helps the body override pain sensations getting to the brain by processing non-painful stimuli first. It makes pain sit in traffic. This is the big reason why most people immediately rub their toe after stubbing it on the leg coffee table or grab their foot immediately after stepping on a lego barefooted. The TOUCH sensation will take the express lane to your brain and force the pain sensation to sit in traffic. You will feel TOUCH more than PAIN. Ice works the same way – you give the express lane to the sensation of touch (temperature), pain is the forced to sit in traffic on its way to the brain, thus you feel the cold not the pain. Spoiler alert – this is also how Icy-Hot, Biofreeze, etc. work. They trick your body’s nervous system using chemicals to stimulate touch/temperature sensations which take the expressway to your brain and make the pain sensation sit in traffic. You’ll sense “hot” or “cold” depending on the chemicals used in the product, not the pain. The temperature of your body isn’t actually changing. WHAT ICE DOESN’T DO: It doesn’t really HEAL anything. It’s blocking a symptom response, not repairing injured tissue. In fact, it actually slows down the body’s natural healing response after an acute injury. The body wants to quickly rush agents of defense, repair, and immune protections to the area of injury. Ice will cause blood vessels to constrict which impedes the ability to get help to the injured part of the body. OUR TAKE ON IT: Use ICE for COMFORT from pain – to sleep – to aid relaxation – to open up a window of opportunity to move with less pain – to help manage effects chronic inflammation (pain that’s been around for weeks or months, not days.) – to reduce the reliance on pain medications (including common over the counter ones) which all bring side effects. But also be careful about frostbite – that’s real! BE CAREFUL in using ICE with the expectation it is directly HEALING injured areas – immediately after an injury it may be counter-productive for biological healing – actual healing will occur when well supported by time, good nutrition, and sleep – return to function can often be sped up via intelligent reloading of affected areas via targeted strength, mobility, and movement strategies while respecting biological healing. |
 Quick Recap 1. Ice “works” for pain mainly by winning the journey to the brain. 2. Ice doesn’t really specifically heal anything, it can actually slow it down in acute cases. 3. When used strategically, it can increase comfort while opening up pathways that can speed up actual return to function. |