Do you really need to ice a sprained ankle?

March 07, 2010

Today I roled my ankle playing basketball. I didn’t ice it and my job requires me to be on my feet all day. If I can just put up with the pain is it ok not to take a break and treat the sprain? I figure that if I just dont push it to hard it will get better over time. Is this correct?

.yes if it hurts.

7 Responses to “Do you really need to ice a sprained ankle?”

  1. Ashley- Advocate for Christ Says:

    The purpose of ice is to reduce swelling and pain. So you don’t need to put it on your ankle, but it often will help it to feel better. If you don’t rest your ankle it might eventually heal, but it will take longer than resting. Sprained tendons and ligaments are weaker than uninjured ones, so you also run the risk of continually reinjuring the ankle because you do not treat it.
    References :

  2. mysteron Says:

    Yes, it will simply get better over time provided that the injury isn’t more serious (such as a dislocation of a bone or a torn ligament, etc).
    References :

  3. alwaysmekatie Says:

    Most definitely. Icing will reduce the swelling/inflammation/pain that you may have, also relaxing the ligaments you stretched out when your ankle rolled. It will get better if you don’t push hard it will just take much much longer than needed, you need to get a high quality ankle brace when doing activities to help strengthen your ligaments again (:

    i hope this helps
    -katie
    References :
    competitive gymnast 12 years !

  4. kttaylor Says:

    YES! it is fine to be on it, but i would try to give it some rest, if you can wrap an ace bandage around it, but yes it is very important that you ice it.
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  5. ,, Says:

    .yes if it hurts.
    References :

  6. Slinky Says:

    No.
    No.
    No.
    Icing is a waste of time, focused relaxation instantly after the injury will turn off the swelling response avoiding the problem entirely. At this time focused relaxation will still be of more benefit then icing.
    It does not matter what you do at work it’s going to hurt and probably swell up.
    If you do nothing you run the risk of permanent injury, so when you get home after work relax deep yoga style relaxation and use this to deal with the pain signals http://www.hubpages.com/hub/Speed-healing-of-trauma-injuries-through-self-directed-regeneration
    References :

  7. ironchain15 Says:

    Yes, you do need to put ice on your ankle. You also need to be elevating your foot when you are in bed or sitting in a chair. This is really the only way you are going to heal up quickly.
    References :

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