We All Need A Little PEACE & LOVE
Published: 12 August 2024
For the longest time athletes, coaches and health care professionals have lived by the principle of PRICE for managing acute injuries. From simple sprains and strains, to bumps and bruises it was the way to go.
P - Protect
R - Rest
I - Ice
C - Compression
E - Elevate
The goal of this was to reduce the inflammatory process, as this was widely viewed as undesirable and detrimental to the healing process. In addition to PRICE, healthcare providers often pushed anti-inflammatory medications such as ibuprofen and naproxen to further minimise the inflammatory process.
BUT, inflammation is actually very helpful in the healing and remodelling of injured tissue, and so a there may be a more helpful approach to managing acute injuries.
Here lies PEACE & LOVE.
P - Protect - minimise activities that drastically increase pain or cause prolonged pain
E - Elevate - elevate the injured area over level of the heart especially if there is excessive swelling
A - AVOID Anti-inflammatories - these medications may negatively affect optimal tissue healing
C - Compress - elastic bandaging can help reduce excessive swelling
E - Educate - promote confidence in the body, after all it is resilient and has a great capacity to heal
&
L - Load - promote use of the area using pain and swelling to guide how active you are
O - Optimism - try to be confident in your body as it has a wonderful ability to heal
V - Vascularisation - use exercise/ cardio to promote blood flow to the area
E - Exercise - restore movement, strength and resilience to the tissue
PEACE & LOVE not only probably promotes more optimal tissue healing than the PRICE principle, but considers promoting confidence and education to avoid under loading and fear in injured people. The body is a wonderful and resilient, with a great capacity to heal!
See ya ✌️
TPCG
Ref:
Dubois, Blaise & Esculier, Jean-Francois. (2019). Soft-tissue injuries simply need PEACE and LOVE. British Journal of Sports Medicine. 54. bjsports-2019. 10.1136/bjsports-2019-101253.