20 Questions about cooling
1. What is “cooling”?
Cooling is a collective term for a number of First Aid measures applied
with injuries. There are many names for what is usually called
“cooling”. The most common ones are listed below:
• cold therapy
• cryotherapy (Kryios is Greek for “ice”)
• ICE is an abbreviation, meaning Ice, Compression and Elevation.
2. With which injuries should cooling be applied?
Cooling can be applied at sprains, bruises, or ruptures. Actually, you
can use cooling with any kind of injury. Only in the case of an open
wound or bone fracture, cooling should be omitted. When cooling around
the eyes or genitals, one should be extra careful.
3. Until now, you have only mentioned acute injuries, right?
Yes, indeed, but cooling can also be used to slow down the inflammation
and ease the pain that are part of a, starting, overload injury. But in
this case, you still have the risk of thinking the problem is solved and
continue heavy training. When suffering an overload you will always have
to reorganise your training schedule into a less heavy one. Cooling can
be used, though, as a means of support after light trainings and in the
recovery period.
4. What is the purpose of cooling?
Cooling is the best remedy against swellings, caused by fluid and
internal loss of blood. Main purpose will be providing a quick answer to
the unavoidable inflammation. By cooling treatment, the blood vessels
will “shrink” (vasoconstriction) and it is prevented that more blood
will flow into places it does not belong.
5 What is to be achieved?
By controlling aforementioned body reaction, recovery time can be
seriously reduced. After all, a swelling that does not develop any
further does not have to be broken down by the body. Besides, cooling
also has the nice effect of reducing the pain.
6. What is the best way of cooling?
Cooling is done best by means of a cold pack.
7. I beg your pardon?
A cold pack is a synthetic bag filled with gel. You can place it in the
freezer to let it go cold.
8. So when needed, you can just put it on the pain spot, straight
from the freezer?
Absolutely not. If you put a cold pack directly to your skin, freezing
symptoms will occur. Blisters will appear on your skin and damage will
only increase.
When using a cold pack you should always place a towel between cold pack
and skin. The easiest to work with would be a face cloth. Quite often, a
special cover will accompany the cold pack you buy.
9. Is there only one kind of cold pack?
No. You can also find combined cold - hot packs. This kind of bag can be
put in the freezer, as well as in hot water or the microwave. You can
use the hot pack, for example, in case of a cold on the muscles. You can
also find differently sized bags. There is even some kind of pack that
uses a chemical reaction to become cold.
10. That does sound very easy, but what if you do not have a freezer
at hand?
It is always possible, during preparation, to cover a cold pack in an
isolation bag and take it to the training grounds or competition.
11. You don’t seriously think I would be dragging along this bag all
day, do you? I want to keep it fun, you know.
If all is well, every clubhouse has a cold pack ready at your disposal.
But most of the times that you are exercising outside, you will not have
a cold pack with you. In that case, you will just have to go with the
alternatives.
12. What are those alternatives?
The simplest would be ice cubes from the canteen. Crush these in a
plastic bag and you have made yourself a cold pack. For small injuries,
you can also put the ice cubes in a plastic cup. By drawing circles on
the injured spot you will cool it considerably. Slowly running cold
water from a tap or ditch can well be used as a means of cooling, too.
The cold water should best touch your skin somewhat above the injury. If
all this is nowhere near you can even try cooling with an ordinary ice
cream. Be sure to buy a horn, at least you will be able to keep your
hands clean. Of course, you should be extra on the lookout for stingy
insects like wasps.
13. I remember to have seen this kind of cooling aerosol sprays?
The use of such aerosols with chlorine-ethyl seems to be an easy
solution, but you better leave it to specialists. The risks of freezing
are simply too big.
14. When should you use cooling?
Best would be right after the injury occurred.
15. How long should you be cooling?
Fifteen to twenty minutes at max. Continuing treatment any longer would
cause the body, wanting to fight the cold, to start a counter reaction
that sends extra blood to the place. And that of course is just what we
were trying to avoid.
16. So cooling once would do the trick?
No, cooling only once is not enough. In principle, you can repeat
treatment once every hour for the first forty-eight hours. Of course,
while sleeping you can hardly continue treatment. After this period,
cooling is useless. Effect will be greatest in the first few hours. So
repeating at least four or five times will make the swelling go away,
more treatments only ease the pain.
17. What exactly is meant by “pressure” and “keeping elevated”?
“Pressure” is when you use external pressure, for example from pressure
bandages, to fight any swellings.
The “keeping elevated” of your leg by putting it on a chair or of your
arm by wearing a sling can decrease recovery time because, by gravity,
less blood will flow towards the injury. That will cause a reduction to
your swellings. Cooling thoroughly is still the most important.
18. If you twist your ankle, should you take off your shoes before
you start cooling?
It depends on how careful you are to your shoes and to what height it
encloses your ankle. In principle, shoes serve well as a “pressure
bandage”. Especially if you still have to walk some distance, you better
keep your shoes on. If you take them off you probably will not be able
to put it back on, because the ankle gets too much swollen. The
combination of cold pack and shoe does not work. You will only be able
to do some cooling with cold (ditch)water.
19. Is cooling only useful in the case of sports injuries?
No, I feel that every household should keep a cold pack in the freezer.
Everyone bumps his head, arms or shinbones from time to time. With every
bruise you can limit its size and reduce the pain by immediate cooling.
20. If you do your cooling well, could you start training right
after?
If injuries have developed you have to find out which alternative
trainings there are that do not worsen your injuries. This is very
important so as not to drop the level of your overall condition. Only
once all pain symptoms have disappeared during or after your workout,
when strength has fully returned and agility is the same again as that
of the other limb, you can say you are ready to return to your usual
training schedule. The competitions will have to wait for another few
weeks or months, even. It is important to look for professional advise
on the more serious sprains and other severe injuries. A doctor or
physiotherapist can tell you exactly what you should and what you should
not do.