Sports, Sport, Sport injury, sport injuries,Unfortunately, sports injuries happen on a fairly regular basis. While playing the game is fun, getting hurt while playing is not. Icing is a great way to find relief from these kinds of injuries. One may feel that icing the injury is all that is required for healing to occur. While icing is beneficial, there is a time to apply heat also. There may also be a time where more professional help is needed.
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To Heat Up or Cool Down Sports Injuries?
When an injury to the body occurs, soft tissue is often damaged. The blood supply and oxygen that normally reside in this area is no longer able to get there, leading to a strained muscle or a pulled tendon. Blood and serum begin to leak into the surrounding vessels. This causes a person to experience pain, swelling, stiffness, and tenderness. At this point, it is a great idea to ice the injury to reduce the swelling being caused. Icing also constricts the blood vessels preventing any more blood or serum from leaking.
To some, it may seem that heat would be a better option, but this is not the case. Heat actually slows down the healing process due to the fact that it opens up the capillaries, bringing on more inflammation. However, there is a time to apply heat. This comes the day after icing is done. When ice is applied, blood clots form to allow healing. To help rid the body of these blood clots, heat is the perfect solution. It causes the body to reabsorb the blood.
If Further Care Is Needed for Sports Injuries
A day or two of rest and icing/heating the injury should be enough to get a person back into the game. If he finds that he is still not feeling quite right, it is a good time to seek the care of an upper cervical chiropractor.
I often see those who play sports come into my office with misalignments in the necks due to a blow to the head or another injury. This hinders the body and brain from communicating properly and causes a number of problems. Once corrected, patients can often get back to playing in a short amount of time.
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If you are outside of the Sacramento area you can find an Upper Cervical Doctor near you at www.uppercervicalawareness.com.