Cold Compression - Reduce Narcotics with Cold Compression Injury, surgeries, and muscle strain happen to almost everyone at some point or another – athletes and average people alike. Whether you sustain a serious injury (like an ACL tear) while engaged in an endurance sport like cycling, running, or swimming, or you pull a muscle in your back taking the garbage out, you’ll need some form of pain relief. Strong medications are effective, but they also bring with them unwanted side effects like fatigue, stomach upset, even potential addiction. No one has time for life to stop while dealing with the grogginess produced by powerful pain pills. Many times people assume this is their only option other than just pushing through the pain and dealing with it until their injury heals. This simply isn’t the case.
A Better Pain Relief Method The old reliable RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) method of healing from an injury or surgery certainly works, but getting an ice pack to stay on an injury can be a challenge depending upon the body part that has sustained trauma. It’s also messy, and when you’re in pain you don’t want to be jumping up and down to change ice packs when it melts. Modern technology has brought this somewhat inconvenient and time-consuming standby to a whole new level. Portable Compression Cryotherapy Systems like EasyCryo combine all the benefits of the RICE method into one simple and effective process. This system consists of a machine that cycles ice-cold water throughout wraps specifically designed for various parts of the body, while simultaneously applying pressure between 15 and 75 mmhg to the injured area. The user controls both aspects of the treatment – cold water cycle time as well as compression levels, making it easy to customize the treatment to your individual needs.
Does It Work? A literature review published in the Journal of Sports Medicine found that several studies indicated a lower need for pain medication among patients who used cold compression therapy following surgeries, sprains, and various other injuries and procedures. Cold and compression in the management of musculoskeletal injuries and orthopedic operative procedures: a narrative review looked at data on patients who had undergone ankle sprains, knee arthroplasty, knee ligament repair, and more, and found a correlation between the immediate administration of cryotherapy and compression and a reduced need for analgesics along with an increased range of motion in the days following treatment.