Fire and Ice
WHEN DO YOU APPLY HEAT OR ICE TO AN INJURY?
When it comes to relieving pain, everyone has an opinion. Your mom might suggest taking pills and a nap, while your neighbor swears it’s best to walk it off. Meanwhile, yearly advancements offer more options — and opinions — for patients seeking relief. Among the plethora of available treatments, two remain constant — heat and ice. However, many people don’t know which to use, and unfortunately, the wrong decision can make your pain or injury worse. If you are unsure of which method is best for you, here’s the answer to your heating or icing dilemma. Heat: These treatments can come in several forms, such as creams, pads, and wraps. Many medical professionals suggest
using heat treatment for 30 minutes to four hours, depending on what is needed to fully relax the muscle. Heat often works best for chronic pain because it supports blood flow and loosens your muscles. Heat treatments can also be used to relieve stress and tension, but you should never use heat on an open wound or fresh injury. Ice: Cooling treatments can also be found in cream or wrap form, but a bag of peas or ice from your freezer will work just as well. Ice should be used in short bursts of time at a high frequency instead of one long use. Icing treatments are best for bruised wounds and minor injuries because the cold can reduce the swelling in your blood vessels — the cause of bruising — and expedite your healing
different rates throughout their lives. The first year of a dog’s life is closer to 13 years of a human’s life. It’s like how you aged a lot when you were a toddler, but probably didn’t change as much between the ages of 30 and 31. A dog’s mouth is cleaner than a human’s. We think this myth got its start because when dogs lick their wounds, they heal faster. But this has less to do with the magical healing properties of dog spit and more with the fact that licking removes damaged tissue and stimulates blood flow, which in turn promotes faster healing. That said, considering everything dogs do with their mouths, you shouldn’t let your dog lick any scraped knees this summer. Though there are a lot of incorrect dog myths, keep in mind that there are also a lot of things humans get right — like how much fun playing ball is! process. However, icing your chronic pain can be detrimental due to the stiffening reaction that decreases swelling. This is the opposite of the muscle relaxation you need for chronic pain relief. Eventually, heating treatments can be worked into a healing plan, but ice is a quick solution to a small problem. As with most treatments, what works for one person may not work for another. If icing an injury feels best for you and you see improvement, continue icing away your pain. Additionally, some patients find relief while rotating between cooling and heating. Regardless of your preferred method, it’s best to seek professional guidance in order to find a viable long- term solution. LET’S BURY SOME DOG MYTHS
FETCH OR FICTION
Hey there!
Mookie here, and I just spent the day playing ball with Dr. Brennan. Did you know dogs and humans have been playing ball for over 10,000 years? That’s when early man first befriended ancient gray wolves. But even though dogs and humans have been together for so long, there are still a lot of things man gets wrong about man’s best friend. Let’s set the record straight on a few dog myths. Dogs see in black and white. While it’s true that dogs have fewer cones in their eyes than humans do, we aren’t living in an old movie. A study from the University of California proved that dogs really do see color, just fewer colors than humans do. We see the world in shades of blues, grays, and yellows. My favorite color is dark blue, by the way. 1 ‘dog year’ equals 7 human years. There’s no scale for measuring how dogs age compared to humans because different breeds of dogs have different life spans. Plus, dogs, much like humans, will age at
– Mookie & Brice
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