Ice bath therapy

[mustafiz]

Much is being made in the BD media about McInnes'/physio's use of "ice bath therapy". Apparently players have to sit in a tub full of ice water for 1 minute (2 minutes for fast bowlers). Obviously this is new for Bangladesh (hence the hoopla). Anyone know how common this practice is in cricket elsewhere?

[Edited on 21-2-2004 by mustafiz]

[Edited on 21-2-2004 by mustafiz]

[chinaman]

It's a relaxation technique not unheard of with increased blood circulation.

[Edited on 2-21-2004 by chinaman]

[Rubu]

Brik-kho tomer naam ki, folayee porichoi. how good is ice therapy u should know by now. if u still don't know, look at the plate we might win, and u'll know.

[billah]

Ice therupy is widely used for sports injuries, very popular in sports medicine, and very effective. For example, I read recently (don't remember source), that, in the past, sports doctors used to recommend ice therupy only in the first few days of injury. Now, researchers have found out that ice therupy is effective upto several weeks after the occurance of injury or trauma. Minimizes damages to blood vessels in the first 72 hours. Later, it supposedly speeds up healing, re-building of tissues by allowing plasma (?) to enter the injured area . bla bla bla.. what do I know. Is there a doctor among the members? Ask him/her. Widely used by NBA team doctors in the USA.

[Rubu]

u are talking about injury therapy. as a treatment of injury ice is ofcourse useful. but as a mental therapy (what our famous u19 coach was doing) is not seen by anyone before (at least i never read or heard of it)

[billah]

Originally posted by AgentSmith
u are talking about injury therapy. as a treatment of injury ice is ofcourse useful. but as a mental therapy (what our famous u19 coach was doing) is not seen by anyone before (at least i never read or heard of it)

Sorry, LOL. I didn't know he was playing the shrink...Considering the hot Bangladesh weather, it may just work!

[adnan]

Well , i guess we, the fans need some ice-therapy now cause its difficult to keep our blood pressure and other pressures under control with such outcomings.

[Rubu]

adnan, well said. in our situation we can really try that if that makes us any better. tell me how to i use a picture with the name. is it has to be a picture on the web or hard drive. i tryed but failed. give me some directions plz.

[Zunaid]

It's more than just for injury recovery...

A lot of athletes swear by it these days - I had read an article some time back about how the ice bath therapy is de rigeur for the British national Rugby Team.

The main idea is to enhance the recovery of fatigued muscles for another day's hard workout - the underlying science is to speed up the removal of lactic acid that builds up after heavy workouts. Too much lactic acid reduces muscle functionality and over the long term increases general fatigue and heaviness.

So the theory is (and proven in practice) that the cold temperature will result in blood-vessel constriction causing blood to flow out of the extremities and eventually be filtered out by the kidney. So after leaving the ice bath after 10/15 minutes blood rushes back to the now expanding vessels bringing in re-oxygenated and filtered blood. And when this bllod circulates more of the built-up lactic acid is taken away and filtered.

I did a quick google search and came across an aritcle in the Journal of Sport Rehabilitation form 1994 that discusses this therapy.

It's just that our local world class trainers and coaches are a tad bit behind in times.

Cheers,
Zunaid

[reverse_swing]

Well said Zunaid.

[billah]

Thanks, Zunaid.

[Carte Blanche]

Yeap, thanks for the clarification. This is what I've found in another article after doing a google search.

In the past 28 years, there have been many studies of ice as a therapy tool for injuries. Many of these studies have had conflicting conclusions, but improvements in technology are giving researchers new data. There is no doubt in the minds of many researchers and doctors that ice is the most widely used and efficient form of cryotherapy in medicine today. A 1994 study sited in The American Journal of Sports Medicine (Jul/Aug) showed ice affects not only the arterial and soft tissue blood flow, but also the metabolism of the bone, in a positive way. This is significant in the healing process of an injury to a joint.

[billah]

Good info. Thanks.

[rafiq]

The old knees were aching as I woke up this morning and rushed downstairs to check on the score. The shoulders hurt, too, a result of having gone to the gym yesterday after a gap of a week and half. As awful as those mid-winter exercise habits are, the always effervescent comments of my fellow banglacricket fans reminds me of why we have such controversial debates over seemingly silly things.

As another solid citizen of this board has asked us in the past, and I won't mention him by name to protect his privacy, how many of us are actually out there playing cricket or other sports? If the gym is the extent of our exercise (and hey thank god for that otherwise more of us would have cardiac arrests by 40), then perhaps no wonder we are puzzled by things such as ice baths. An ice bath is a full body treatment that is conceptually no different that what even weekend warrior sportspeople do - wrap themselves in ice, or soak themselves in the tub with ice in it.

Now, if this sounds esoteric, no worries. But rather than simply asking "ok how does this help", we launch into thinking something along the lines "this idiot Foster-guzzling, crocodile-hunting Aussie must be wasting all the ice in Dhaka - he's probably punishing our poor little boys, some kind of Aussie ice water torture, let's form an investigative committee...".


Anyway, don't take it the wrong way, it's the controversies that keep us coming back to the board, keep up the good work!

ps Zunaid showed remarkable research qualities as early as eigth or ninth grade, perhaps before, glad to have him here as the resident researcher on sports medicine, treatments and electrolytes!

[Edited on 21-2-2004 by rafiq]

[pavel]

http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0645.htm

Ice therapy (Ice, Compression and Elevation) is the key component of acute soft tissue injury, but little is known about the optimum duration of individual treatment sessions, the frequency of application or the length of the overall treatment programme.
Now DC MacAuley, Professor of Primary Health Care at Ulster University, has filled in some of the gaps with a systematic review of the literature on ice therapy. His main conclusions are that:
1. Melting iced water applied through a wet towel for repeated periods of 10 minutes is most effective. Frozen gel packs and ice taken straight from the freezer may cause tissue damage and even frostbite if applied directly to the skin. And, since deep penetration of cold is necessary to have any effect on muscle tissue, topical sprays can have little effect;
2. The optimum skin temperature for reducing inflammation without causing cell damage is 10-15¡C;
3. Using repeated rather than continuous ice applications helps sustain reduced muscle temperature without compromising the skin and allows the superficial skin temperature to return to normal while deeper muscle temperature remains low.

Athletes should beware of rushing straight back onto the track or field following ice therapy, since Mac Auley points out that reflex activity and motor function are impaired temporarily, leaving patients more susceptible to injury for up to 30 minutes following treatment.
Int J Sports Med 2001 Jul 22(5), pp379-84