Heat or Ice : Episode 23

This week we discuss the age old question of whether to heat or ice?
We review Torres Selecta Trufa Negra (Black Truffle) Potato Chips, compliments of Ellen Bywaters
Trivia question of the week: How many gifts would you receive if you received all the gifts in the song, “The 12 Days of Christmas”?
Follow us on Instagram: 2pts_n_a_bagofchips and/or Twitter @2PTsNaBagOChips to see photos, video and get additional episode specific information throughout the week.
Thanks for listening!!

Today we are going to cover, Heat or Ice? The age old question. I think we should cover both. We will. I think we should cover heat and ice. We shall, we shall and we will be reviewing the Torres Selecta, Trufa Negra provided by Ellen Bywaters. Easy for you to say. Not easy for me to say. The bag looked amazing, like it was ready to explode. It was very puffed up. Super puffed, it was exciting. This is a Spanish chip I believe. Sure. They look pretty good. It’s got black truffle, isn’t that a French thing? They look for truffles with pigs. Yez. Pig truffles, Plus we’ll get to the chips latter.

Heat or ice? We get this question every day? At least. At least everyday. Is there more than everyday? No there isn’t. So we get it at least everyday. Probably more than once a day. Should I use heat or ice. The official answer is; for the first 72 hours ice is probably your best bet. The more acute the injury the more likely you are to benefit from ice. Although there are studies now that say that is not true.

The thing being that ice is supposed to create vasoconstriction so you don’t have a lot of bleeding or swelling when you have an acute injury. But when you apply ice for too long then the body tries to warm it self up. Which increases vasodilatation that then may offset. That’s counterintuitive. But I’ve read some of those studies and I am not convinced that the first 48hours ice is not better then heat. I think you would go with ice.

I think what we see a lot of is individuals that actually over ice or over heat. It’s a real problem. When people tell you to do 10-15mins on then an hour off that is about as much as you ever want to. Yeah you defiantly don’t want to do any more. Any more then that you are really pushing the boundaries. The reason for this is because when you do these activates what you are trying to promotes is fluid movement and specifically reduction of inflammation in the area. The only way to do that is through moving fluid and when you ice something you get vasoconstriction which reduced your blood flow and lymphatic flow for that matter as well. You would rather not have that occur. Yup, you get puddling up of fluids in that case instead of movement.

Ice is really good as an analgesic. It’s a great way to turn pain off immediately. You put ice on for 5 or so minutes and your skin is cool to the touch. You can’t quite feel the same amount of discomfort as you did before, and for that it is very very help. That is usually the case when you are having an acute pain reaction. So the old sprained ankle or you fall on your elbow or sprained wrist or what have you. An acute sprain always responds well to ice. If for nothing else, it feels better. It numbs the pain a little bit.