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

(www.scientificamerican.com)
611 points sohkamyung | 5 comments | 19 Feb 25 12:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | 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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1. kenjackson ◴[19 Feb 25 19:24 UTC] No.43106273[source]▶
The guy who termed RICE (Gabe Mirkin) later came out and said he made a mistake. Specifically with the "Ice" part (and partially with Rest). See: https://drmirkin.com/fitness/why-ice-delays-recovery.html
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2. askvictor ◴[19 Feb 25 22:08 UTC] No.43108382[source]▶
IIRC the underlying assumption was that you should be reducing inflammation (RICE is almost all about reducing inflammation). Since then, we've learned that inflammation is a good thing, and helps things heal faster.
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3. tomjakubowski ◴[20 Feb 25 00:50 UTC] No.43109797[source]▶
I'm curious now if the anti-inflammatory diets popular with dietitians and health influencers could have a negative effect when you really do want inflammation, like when fighting an infection or recovering from injury.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/quick-start-g...

https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/healthy-weight/diet...

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4. james4k ◴[20 Feb 25 04:07 UTC] No.43110989{3}[source]▶
As I understand it such diets allow the immune system to work more effectively, not suppressing it like, say, corticosteroids do.
5. jalla ◴[20 Feb 25 13:03 UTC] No.43114161[source]▶
Also, elevation is useless and compression is potentially harmful as restricting blood circulation and compressing tissue limits healing.