Peace And Love
How To Manage Pain And Swelling Immediately After An Injury
Peace And Love Principle Explained…
You have probably found this article because you are searching for ‘peace and love.’
Now you are in the wrong place if you are looking for hippy ‘peace and love.’ This article is explaining pure GOLD that will help you manage your pain and injury.
Let’s get started…
Ever wondered what is the best way to manage your acute injury?
Over the years there have been many ideas…
Ice vs Not to ice
Heat vs no heat
Rest vs activity.
This blog aims to answer your questions about the current evidence how how you can apply this your injury.
This information below is based on an article by BJSM, disseminated at a recent ACPSEM conference on the management of the cause injury.
Thanks to Phil Glasgow for helping to explain this for us.
What is PEACE and LOVE?
Peace and Love are used to manage acute soft tissue injuries, over the years there has been many acronyms to guide management.
Starting with ICE to RICE to PRICE and POLICE.
PEACE and LOVE outline the importance of educating patients to enhance recovery.
What Does PEACE And LOVE Stand For?
The following picture has been disseminated from therunningclinic.com
Click here to check out their site
What Should I Do Immediately After Injury?
Do no HARM and let PEACE guide your recovery
P is for Protection
Avoid movements and activities which increase pain during first few days prior injury. Restrict or unload movement for 1-3 days, this minimises bleeding, prevention dissensions of injured fibres and reduces the risk of aggravating the injury even more. Minimise rest as this can compromise tissue strength. This can be guided by pain.
E is For Elevation
Elevate the affected limb higher than the heart as much as possible to increase interstitial fluid fluid flow out of tissues.
A in For Avoid anti inflammatories
Avoid taking anti inflammatories as they can reduce tissue healing. The stages of inflammation assist in the repair of damaged soft tissue structures, so by taking anti inflammatories can inhibit this process and can negatively affect long term tissue healing. Standard care of soft tissue injuries should not include anti inflammatories.
C Is For Compression
Use EAB or taping to reduce swelling. External mechanical pressure using tape or bandages can help limit intra-articular oedema and tissue haemorrhage.
E Is For Education
Avoid unnecessary passive treatments and let nature play its course, your body knows best. Your therapist should educate you on your tissue healing and rehabilitation process. Therapists should also educate clients on the benefits of an active approach to recovery. This can help speed up the recovery process and help keep a positive outlook throughout the journey.
What Do I Do After The First Days Have Passed After My Injury?
After the first few days your soft tissue injury requires LOVE.
L is For Load
Most clients with musculoskeletal disorder benefit from an active approach with movement and exercise. As soon as symptoms allow, mechanical stress should be added.
Optimal loading without bringing on too much pain promotes repair, remodelling, builds tissue tolerance and the capacity of tendons, ligaments and tendons through mechano transduction.
Increase load gradually let pain guide you through this as it will tell you when you’re doing too much. It’s also great to get the opinion of the physio or sports therapist you are working with so they can explain the specific restrictions for the tissue that’s been affected in your injury.
O Is For Optimism
Keep a positive and confident mind throughout the injury process. Optimistic patient expectations can mean better outcomes.
V Is For Vascularisation
Take part in pain free cardiovascular exercise in order to increase blood flow to the repairing tissues. Early mobilisation and aerobic exercise can improve physical function.
E Is For Exercise
Adopt an active approach to recovery in order to restore strength and proprioception. Pain should be avoided to ensure optimal repair during the subacute phase of recovery, this should be used as a guide for exercise progression.
Overall, managing a soft tissue injury is more than just short term ‘damage’ control. The first few days/weeks are very important during injury as it can determine the overall recovery process.
We couldn’t complete this without mentioning icing.
As a general rule icing is great for pain relief (wrapped in a tea towel and applied for 10mins) although there are some negative reports of icing applied for more than 20minutes in animal studies at very low temperatures.
Written by Zoe Rawlings (edited by Nicole).