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

(www.scientificamerican.com)
611 points sohkamyung | 8 comments | 19 Feb 25 12:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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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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miketery ◴[19 Feb 25 14:46 UTC] No.43102665[source]▶
Optimal load is right before it starts hurting. You progressively load, and when it starts hurting you unload. Your body will send pain before there is damage to be done.

Edit: in fact some discomfort or right kind of pain is good. Else you give to atrophy.

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1. layer8 ◴[19 Feb 25 16:00 UTC] No.43103541[source]▶
Your edit shows that there is no good rule for the threshold where pain would indicate too much load vs. still being in the beneficial range. We don’t even have a good way to assess subjective pain (one’s 3 is another one’s 7, etc.). “Optimal load” is really just a tautology.
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2. pessimizer ◴[19 Feb 25 21:06 UTC] No.43107692[source]▶
"As soon as it starts to hurt" is not some hopelessly complex and useless standard that involves delving into philosophies of subjective pain sensation. It is actually obvious and easy to follow.

Use it, but when it hurts, stop.

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3. Dylan16807 ◴[19 Feb 25 21:33 UTC] No.43108012[source]▶
> “Optimal load” is really just a tautology.

It's not just a tautology, because it correctly implies that the right amount of load is not zero.

And it's hard to expect an acronym by itself to be very specific.

4. devilbunny ◴[20 Feb 25 04:22 UTC] No.43111101[source]▶
Yeah, but given the huge variations in pain tolerance, some will reinjure it while others will never use it again.
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5. theultdev ◴[20 Feb 25 17:05 UTC] No.43117235{3}[source]▶
tolerating it doesn't mean you can't detect it.

no amount of pain tolerance will help you if something is broken.

you WILL feel it. simply stop when you do.

it's not a hard thing to grasp.

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6. devilbunny ◴[20 Feb 25 18:57 UTC] No.43118629{4}[source]▶
Clearly, you have never worked in healthcare.

Sleeve tattoos but needs an IV? “Oh, I’m not good with needles, you need to sedate me first.”

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7. theultdev ◴[20 Feb 25 19:05 UTC] No.43118717{5}[source]▶
How is that relevant?
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8. devilbunny ◴[20 Feb 25 20:41 UTC] No.43119882{6}[source]▶
Perception of pain is highly individual. Like I said, people who have tons of tats will complain about an IV. You aren’t afraid of needles, you just don’t like them when they are used for your health instead of marking up your body.