This fits with my experience, growing up I was taught to regularly apply ice to acute sports injuries, however the ice always melted pretty quick and slipped off besides, so I got tired of effort of keeping a fresh bag of ice on the injury, and eventually just stopped.
What I discovered anecdotally is that the swelling was never any worse, and there was no discernible difference in the time a given category of injury (twisted/sprained ankles for the most part) took to heal.
And it makes sense when you think about it, we've evolved for millions of years to deal with acute minor injuries without ice. Look at the billions of people who live without refrigeration today and engage in daily manual labor, are they continually hobbled by minor injuries? No. How ice became such a religious imperative in injury treatment I have no idea. Granted it probably makes sense in cases where the swelling/inflammation is so severe it becomes a secondary injury or just continuously painful, but for the everyday "rolled my ankle while playing house league soccer" injury? Completely unnecessary and ineffective IMO.
What I discovered anecdotally is that the swelling was never any worse, and there was no discernible difference in the time a given category of injury (twisted/sprained ankles for the most part) took to heal.
And it makes sense when you think about it, we've evolved for millions of years to deal with acute minor injuries without ice. Look at the billions of people who live without refrigeration today and engage in daily manual labor, are they continually hobbled by minor injuries? No. How ice became such a religious imperative in injury treatment I have no idea. Granted it probably makes sense in cases where the swelling/inflammation is so severe it becomes a secondary injury or just continuously painful, but for the everyday "rolled my ankle while playing house league soccer" injury? Completely unnecessary and ineffective IMO.