Why Ice Delays Injury Recovery: Red Light Therapy is a Better Option!

I think we have all heard the term RICE: Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. For years, decades really, RICE has been recommended by doctors and medical professionals for a variety of injuries. While ice may be the safest, cheapest, and simplest pain relief tool we have at our disposal, it may not be the best option for faster injury recovery.

The term RICE comes from the 1978 book Sportsmedicine Book written by Dr. Gabe Mirkin. Since the book’s publication, Dr. Mirkin has actually changed his stance on using ice for injury recovery. As a result of new recovery research, Dr. Mirkin’s views on ice adapted and evolved. He no longer supports RICE, and now believes that applying ice to injured tissue causes the blood vessel near the injury to constrict and stop the blood flow that’s necessary for healing and reducing inflammation. 

Why isn't ice effective for faster injury recovery? When used to numb an injury, ice is very helpful. But when used for more than 5 minutes, according to Dr. Mirkin, ice can be detrimental to the body’s natural tissue repair process. Extended use of ice can also lead to reduced strength, flexibility, and endurance (Mirkin, Gabe. Why Ice Delays Recovery. 2015). Read the full article here.

Ice is not an ideal recovery method because it has the effect of slowing your body’s natural response, which is essential to healing. It’s better to use a modality that enhances your body’s natural recovery response, such as light therapy. 

Ice and red light therapy have very different effects on inflammation. Ice works to suppress the body's inflammatory response, whereas red light therapy supports inflammation management. So while ice is preventing normal inflammation from doing it's job, red light therapy is speeding up the injury recovery process by helping the body process inflammation. So the morale of the story...next time you have an injury, before you grab the ice, consider grabbing a light therapy device! At Red Light Therapy Resource, we have a device to fit just about any budget, plus the resources and ongoing support to ensure you reap the full benefits of light therapy. Proudly a woman owned, California based company! To visit our store, click here.