3 tips to improve healing
Keep moving and stay warm! Don’t use ice on your injuries. Use heat. The advice to use ice is outdated and will only slow your healing process. The doctor who spread the advice about using ice has apologized for giving such bad advice to the public. Use heat.
Get as much motion as you can into the area of injury. Your body is going to start creating scar tissue to help the area heal. Scar tissue can cause stiffness. By gently massaging and moving the injured area, you will help the scar tissue lay down in patterns that are helpful rather than stiff.
If you hurt a joint, move it as much as you can! If it hurts to move it, try using passive motion. Passive motion is when use your hands to rotate your ankle. If you cannot do passive motion on yourself, have a loved one help you. Get as much passive motion into the joint as you can. If it hurts a little bit more, that is ok. A small increase in pain (an increase of 2 on a scale of 10) is fine. The benefits of motion will outweigh a small pain increase.
A good way to assure you are getting full range of motion in a joint is to try to trace out the alphabet with the injured joint. If there is a certain motion that hurts too much to do, then avoid that motion and do the other motions. For example—if it hurts too much to move your arm up, then keep moving it over and back. The more motion you can get the better.
