WHAT IS PEACE AND LOVE?

Did you grow up hearing that RICE will treat your old battle wounds?  The old acronym stands for:
Rest  – Ice – Compress – Elevate

Did you know that this is no longer the recommended approach to an acute injury?  Big changes in evidence have shown us that icing your soft-tissue injuries can actually hinder the recovery rate, which is not ideal at all!

According to Singh et al. (2017), even if ice is mostly for topical pain-relief, it can actually disrupt the inflammatory process, re-vascularisation and interrupt macrophage assistance (the little guys that help take away all the bad stuff). 

So what do we use instead of Ice?

 The new acronym PEACE and LOVE was coined in order to keep up to date with the latest research.  

Immediately after an injury, you will need PEACE:
Protect – Elevate – Avoid anti-inflammatory treatments – Compress – Educate

A few days after the injury, you will need some LOVE:
Load – Optimism – Vascularisation – Exercise

 Fortunately for us, evidence shows that the quicker we can get back to using the injury, the better our chances of recovery are. 
So remember:

• Avoid ice or anti-inflammatory treatments
• We all need PEACE and LOVE!

If you want to learn more about acute care of soft-tissue injuries, come and speak to our team at Flex Physio and get back on the road to recovery quicker!