get ice try not to walk/run on it for a week or so depending on the pain if it gets bad enough soak it in cold water and just let it heal as much as possible get good rest A big part of why itâs important to treat an ankle sprain correctly is that proper treatment can help prevent recurrence. Â If you rack up too many ankle sprains, you can develop whatâs known as chronic ankle instability, a condition where the ligaments of the ankle become ruptured or elongated, and cartilage in the ankle joint sustains damage.
Chronic ankle instability can seriously hamper your ability to run, so avoiding it at all costs should be your top priority
Once youâve sustained an ankle sprain, the first thing to do is to cut down on the swelling and pain as quickly as possible.
The best tool for this job is the ice bath.
Using ice (instead of heat) to reduce swelling
A 1982 study published by John Hocutt Jr. and other doctors at the Delaware Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine Center compared icing applied to an ankle sprain immediately following injury (ice applied less than an hour post-injury), or ice applied starting 36 hours post-injury.
The authors found that subjects who initiated icing soon after injury were able to return to sport after an average of 13 days, compared to 30 days for the group who waited 36 hours to start icing.5
Although we have recommended not putting ice on your running injuries in the past, in a situation like this, icing an ankle sprain is by far the best way to limit the damage.
You might read other articles on ankle sprains encouraging you to apply heat to the injured area, but Hocutt et al.âs study refutes that idea, too.
The researchers found that applying heat instead of ice resulted in the longest average recovery time: 33 days!
A different study by Debra CotĂŠ and colleagues at the University of North Carolina helps build the case against heating for ankle sprains, at least initially. Â CotĂŠ et al. compared the effects of cold water baths, hot water baths, and contrast baths on swelling following an ankle sprain. After using a specially-designed water tank to measure changes in ankle volume, they found that heat and contrast baths led to substantially more ankle swelling than soaking the ankle in a cold water bath. When it comes to how to ice, a 2006 study published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine suggests that an âintermittentâ icing protocol consisting of 10 minutes of icing, 10 minutes of rest, then 10 more minutes of ice produces more rapid reductions in ankle pain when compared to 20 minutes of continuous icing. Using a bucket of ice water is also preferable to using an ice pack, since the hydrostatic pressure of the water inside the bucket provides a form of compression, which may help reduce swelling. According to Hocutt et al., icing should start as soon as possible following injury, and should occur three times per day for at least the first three days post-injury.5 Elevating the ankle vs. compression Research also indicates that elevating the injured leg is a better treatment than applying an elastic wrap like an ACE bandage.A 1991 study found that patients who elevated their ankle for 30 minutes had less ankle swelling than those who used an elastic wrap, and a 2011 study found no significant benefits of using an elastic wrap for compression when evaluating pain and functioning 10 and 30 days post-sprain.9,
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hope you feel better
