Inflammation beneficial in healing damaged muscle tissue

[Arnold]

Inflammation beneficial in healing damaged muscle tissue by Neharika Sabharwal A new study from the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) challenges popular belief that the best way to deal with muscle injuries is to immediately focus on measures designed to reduce inflammation and minimizing pain, such as ice-packs, compression, and elevation. 0diggsdigg [...]

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[2tomlinson]

Intentionally irritating a soft tissue injury seems counter intuitive, but I read of something called Prolotherapy while researching platelet rich plasma therapy (which has worked like magic since getting my first injection for a torn rotator cuff three weeks ago.) PRP also induces irritation, but it is markedly more expensive than prolotherapy. Both therapies could be god-sends to bodybuilders. Here's info:
Prolotherapy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[fufu]

One of my MT instructors has used induced-inflammation techniques to speed up the recovery time of one of his distance running clients. She badly sprained one of her lateral ankle ligaments, and in 3 weeks she ran a marathon successfully, pain free.

I did ask him why one should ice to reduce inflammation if it is the body's natural healing response to injury. He said you can't reduce inflammation entirely, and in the time span of about 3 days, icing post injury will help recovery.

I think the key phrase in that article is "controlled inflammation". Not too much, not too little. Icing is a technique to control and not necessarily one to negate inflammatory responses entirely.