In my experience, ice does NOT heal an injury. What it may do is
reduce swelling, allowing more bloodflow in the area of interest while
it warms back up. I remember from some physiology classes I took that
the inflammation response in the body is a positive feedback mechanism
and can easily get out of control. Do you NEED to ice to get it back
under control? Of course not. But in some cases, at least in my
experience, it seems to accelerate healing, or at least make the pain
tolerable enough that I can relax.

--Nate


--- In RunningBarefoot@yahoogroups.com, "Billy Gard" <billygard@...>
wrote:
>
> <<< I agree about this ice and antiinflatmmatory thing. I think
people are
> using ice/antiinflamatory too much to think they are getting
healing. >>>
>
> I've always suspected this given the stuff I've been reading in natural
> hygene and naturopathic medicine. We have a modern love affair with
> resisting every attempt of the body to heal itself, and like you I
believe
> that tactic should be limited to times when the body's response is too
> painful and debilitating and needs to be moderated. Even Arnold
Ehret, the
> guru of fasting, said that detoxification can usefully be "regulated
as to
> speed" given the fact that often the process can be painful and, if it
> happens too fast, even dangerous.
>
> But when I get fever, which causes chills because the body wants to
be hot,
> I cooperate and help the body get comfortably warm. I've actually read
> advice to do the opposite, to try to kill the fever with cold. CRAZY
idea!
> Since the fever is there to "burn" away something that shouldn't be
there.
> Now if it gets dangerously high and/or disruptive, I am for
regulating it
> even if it requires, god forbid, a Tylenol. Once someone said in an
article
> that when you feel a cold first coming on, bundle up and go for a
light jog
> so that you are hot and sweaty. This may head it off by helping the body
> "fever" it away.
>
> I talked with someone who was describing a store called "Bano" which
is a
> health spa that specializes in alternating immersion in hot and cold
water.
> This is thought to invigorate the body in unique ways. While I
haven't gone
> there yet, I do a similar thing in the shower. I've been persuaded as of
> late that many of the best things for our body and mind involve some
sort of
> alternation between extremes (fast and slow, tension and release,
hot and
> cold, high and low singing, "ins and outs" eye exercises, and so on).
>
> Billy
>