Never fall asleep with an ice pack (and other first aid mistakes)

In the clinic, my patients are always asking about how they should take care of themselves after a small cut, a pulled muscle, and other minor injuries. With these sorts of injuries, it’s important to know whether a first aid kit vs trauma kit is the best option. Most of the time, a simple first aid kit should be all you need. By the end of this series, you should know the best ways to take care of you and your family.

We’ll focus on one of the most well-known injuries in the Bible to guide us through the basics of first aid: Jacob’s hip. As a refresher, we learn in Genesis Chapter 32 that Jacob wrestled with God throughout the night. During the encounter, God touched Jacob’s hip socket, and the joint was put out of place.

If you were Jacob (or one of Jacob’s family members), and you needed to address this at home, what would you have done? Would you have made an ice pack, plugged in a heating pad, done a combination of both? And why would you have made the selection you did? Understanding how injuries work and what helps them is the key to proper first aid, family care/self-care, and healing.

If you decided to ice that injury, let’s double-check your response. When we have injuries like an ankle sprain or a bruised elbow, red and white blood cells rush to the injured site to help with healing. We see these blood cells at work in the form of swelling and discoloration/bruising. If you put your hand over the injury, you may feel these blood cells at work, because the area will get warm and feel inflamed. The goal of ice or “cryotherapy” is to decrease the temperature in the local area. Doing such causes the blood vessels to constrict, therefore limiting the number of cells that come to the area.

You’re probably thinking, “But don’t I want those blood cells to rush to the area and help me get healed?” Yes, but like anything under attack, the body doesn’t necessarily send in just a few troops to fight. It sends in as many as it can! The cells that rush to the area are there to clean up damages (such as broken blood vessels or tiny tears in the muscle) and bring in nutrients. Having a legion of cells rush in can overload the area. (It’s like having too many cooks in the kitchen for Thanksgiving.) When we apply ice, it helps us manage the amount of red and white blood cells that come to the scene. As a result, we are also able to control swelling and inflammation.

When do we use ice? It’s best to do so after a recent injury or re-injury to the muscles, tendons, ligaments, and other soft tissue. For this purpose, we will consider “recent” as three days or less. Generally, after 72 hours, we enter the next phase of healing. Therefore, slowing down the cells at this stage could impede the healing process.

How do we apply ice? This is the case where less is more. Using an ice pack for about 15-20 minutes is your maximum application time, if you want to get the best results. Too much longer, and you could do more damage than you do good. While we don’t want the entire army of red and white blood cells to show up on the scene, we do want at least some of those healing cells to make it to the injured site to clean it up. Check with your doctor for the best ice/cryotherapy plan for you. I generally use the 20 minutes on/2 hours off method, where I will apply ice for up to 20 minutes, then I will remove the ice and move around for a few hours before applying the ice again.

Most importantly, while the ice may feel good, be sure to avoid this No.1 mistake: never fall asleep with an ice pack! Logic tells us, “But the ice will eventually melt,” and “The ice pack will eventually thaw out.” Both arguments are true, but the initial effects of frostbite can occur within the first hour, and they can occur without us even noticing it. That is why we: A. Limit the ice application to 15-20 minutes, B. Wrap the ice pack with a towel, and C. Never fall asleep with an ice pack. These simple first aid practices help take good care of the temple that has been taking good care of us.

Dr. Asha Fields Brewer is a creator of healthy conversations. As a national speaker and published author, she teaches the busy and overwhelmed how to live life abundantly. She is the owner of Temple Fit Co. wellness agency, which is home to 25-plus wellness speakers and fitness instructors. Tune in to “Temple Fit Devotions with Dr. Asha” on Wednesdays at 4 p.m. on Hallelujah 95.3 FM.