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No More Ice???

Gary Riedel helped to invent the term RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation.

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He now encourages us to think differently about how we're handling waste/congestion from injury. Ice essentially traps waste in and around the damaged site and it prevents the natural flow of oxygen supplies and it causes additional damage.

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In reality there is little to no research that actually supports the use of ice for injuries. Icing numbs pain, but it does nothing beneficial for the actual injury. 

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The real problem is that cells are going to die/suffocate from the congestion - so we need to decongest the area to prevent tissue loss before we can worry about pain mitigation. The answer to the problem is to use the lymphatic system - in practice this is the garbage management system which can pump out the inflammation away from the injured site. 

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The new acronym becomes MCE - Movement, Compression, and Elevation.

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