Proper Icing

Hi I'm Dr. Williams back again with Cedar City Chiropractic and Rehabilitation here in Cedar City, Utah. So today we're going to talk about icing. So is icing...do I use it? Do I not use it? When do you use it? How long do I ice for? Those are all questions that people ask, especially if you're in an accident, a trip and fall accident or an auto accident and you just don't know hey what do I do? So listen up and I'm gonna tell you. So first you want to get your ice pack right? You want to get it cold. You don't want just a cheapy little ice pack that's gonna hold the cold for two seconds and then not be of any worth to you. So you can get a pretty decent ice pack for $8.00. That's how much we sell these at, at the clinic. So depending on where the injury is is how long you want to ice. It takes a little bit longer in the low back just because the soft tissue is thicker. Up here in the neck it's gonna be a little bit skinnier. Same with the arm or ankle etc. But you want to do at least until the tissue is numb. Now if it takes more than 20 minutes for that tissue to get numb, for the skin or area to get numb. That probably means the thickness of the cloth that you have between the ice pack and the body is too thick. Or the ice pack is just a piece of garbage. So we need to get a different one. So if you have it on the low back takes 20 minutes to get it nice and numb you're gonna take it off for 10 minutes. Then back on 20, off 10, on 20, off 10. So you see the pattern there? That we're doing half the time off of what you have it off for. Just do it three times and then you're going to take about a 45 minute break and then you can repeat the whole process as needed. Okay so if it hurts, ice it up. So...always, always, always have something between the ice and the body. Just one layer of towel or cloth clothing is fine. Have a timer too so you keep track of it. DO NOT FALL ASLEEP WITH IT ON! We always have patients that come in and say, "went to bed, laid down felt good to have that ice on and I went to sleep. Don't want to do that. The reason for it is because if you ice for too long, your body will actually think oh I'm gonna get frostbite and so it'll actually dilate the blood vessels, rush blood in and then it's like putting the heat pack on. So please don't do that. Give us a call if you need help with any of this (867-6354). If you have any questions email us, check out our website: www.cedarcitychiroandrehab.com. Thank you for tuning in take care and have a great day!