Re-injury

Over the years I’ve treated many different types of soft tissue injuries. The main things are sports injuries and trauma from accidents. But, the biggest problem, the worst type of injury is a secondary injuries, an injury to an area that is currently injured itself.

Even a simple sprain can turn into something that can take from months to a year or more to heal when if area is injured again. This is very simple to avoid, perhaps this warning will be enough to help someone avoid a long term, and expensive, healing process.

It’s tough for some people that are really into sports, but the first thing is to stop what you were doing that caused the injury in the first place. A healthy human body loves physical activity, so stopping is not always easy to do, but it is necessary.

Treatment

There are specific common treatments, but they can sometimes be confusing. For example, most people know that applying hot and/or cold to soft tissue injuries is something that will help, but when do you use hot and when cold? A simple guideline is to use cold when the pain is sharp, like right after it happens. An ice pack works wonders in helping to prevent swelling, and relieve pain. After a few days, when the pain is dull heat can be applied.

Another to work with hot and cold is to alternate them. Ice the area until it is good and cold, then apply heat. When practical, immersion in hot water works the best, but a heating pad or hot water bottle can be used. This expands and contracts the blood vesicles which help the stagnant blood and lymph move through.

Another treatment that has been used for centuries is arnica. Arnica is an herb that has long been used as a treatment for strains, sprains and  bruises. It comes in different forms, an arnica cream is one of the most affective ones for soft tissue injuries.

In years past it was thought that immobilizing an injured limb was the best thing for certain types of soft tissue injuries. However, movement is now widely practiced. There is one stretching technique that can heal a spain in just a few days. Movement keeps blood moving through an injured area which keeps the flow nutrients and healing factors coming in.

Conclusion

With a little care, many soft tissue injury can be completely healed in a few days to a few weeks. Be careful though, just because an injury feels better doesn’t mean that it is fully healed, so give it an extra week or two. You can use that time to slowly build up strength in the area to help prevent future injuries which could take a lot longer to heal.

“Hey Kalidasa,

Thank you for the fast response. You seem like a very knowledgeable person. I was curious to see what you thought about what my chiropractor told me yesterday. I already knew that the nerves from your spine control everything in your body and that is why it is vital for them to never be interfered with. He said that this is the reason why there is disease in the body; if there were no subluxations (misalignments), there wouldn’t be any disease. I was suspicious about that comment because it is basically saying that chiropractic is a cure all and there really is no need for medicine. I think that while having a healthy spine is very important, there is still a possibility that you will have an ailment from time to time, and there are things such as poor vison, acne, and hair loss that will happen even if your nervous system is operating to it’s fullest. I was wondering what you think about this?”

Here’s my response.

“That is one point of view that a group of chiropractors take, I don’t adhere to it. I have seen miraculous changes with a simple adjustment, but that is rare. On a practical level, all disease is caused by a lack of some nutrient, a toxicity or a combination of the two. On another level, all disease is caused by emotions. I almost always find an emotional component to whatever I’m treating in someone. And on a final level, it’s all karma sometimes referred to as fate. Take your pick.”

When I treat someone I first ask whether the issue is physical, chemical or emotional, in that order. Unless it is something really simple like a fall knocking a joint out of alignment, emotions almost always show up first.

If it is a misalignment then physical often shows up next. This is an easy case, clear the emotion then realign the joint. The problem rarely recurs.

However, there are a lot of chemical issues that show up. This is where the real investigation comes in, the detective work. If there’s anything my friend and mentor Dr. G taught me, it’s the investigative nature of healing with natural techniques.