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Broken legs and ankles heal better if you walk on them within weeks

(www.scientificamerican.com)
611 points sohkamyung | 1 comments | 19 Feb 25 12:36 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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faitswulff ◴[19 Feb 25 14:20 UTC] No.43102422[source]▶
If anyone's heard of RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation) for healing joints, the new guidance is called POLICE: Protect, Optimal Load, Ice, Compression, and Elevation. The key differences being Protect and Optimal Load, meaning don't re-injure it and expose it to some level of weight-bearing or usage.
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dfxm12 ◴[19 Feb 25 14:31 UTC] No.43102512[source]▶
Anyone can RICE their joints. It's foolproof, more or less objective and requires no monitoring from a professional.

What defines optimal load? It sounds impossible to gauge, unless maybe if you're working with a physical therapist. Then, what happens if load more than the optimal level? Is the outcome worse than if you just stuck to RICE? I think these are things that have to be considered for medical protocols.

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1. mathieuh ◴[19 Feb 25 15:41 UTC] No.43103264[source]▶
I broke my elbow last year (in a very minor way but still), when I was in the A&E the doctor told me to keep moving it and that I wouldn't be able to move it in a way that would affect negatively affect recovery. Within about 10 days it was markedly better and within 21 days I was back riding my bike, and now a year later as far as I can tell it's as good as new.

I didn't need physio or anything, the doctor just told me to keep using it as normally as possible.