A sprained ankle is the most common type of musculoskeletal injury suffered. Even though an ankle sprain is general among athletes, but also happen during everyday activities. An unnatural twisting motion of the ankle joint can happen when the foot is planted awkwardly, when the ground is uneven, or when an unusual amount of force is applied to the joint.
Our ankle joint is made up of three bones.
The tibia; which is the major bone of the lower leg. It bears most of the body's weight. Its bottom portion forms the medial malleolus, the inside bump of the ankle. The fibula; the smaller of the two bones in the lower leg whose lower end forms the lateral malleolus, the outer bump of the ankle and the talus; the top bone of the foot. Tendons connect muscles to bones.
Several muscles control motion of the ankle... Each has a tendon connecting it to one or more of the bones of the foot. Tendons can be stretched or torn when the joint
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To control inflammation and mitigate pain NSAID or Non Steroidial Anti-inflammatory drugs like Ibuprofen and Paracetamol are used. But though the aforesaid treatment protocol can be effective in short term relief, it can take up to two months to get you up and running once again. Not only that most people complain of occasional pain even one year after suffering ankle sprain. In fact, up to 30% still experience pain 1 year later. That's 1 in 3 people!
This is due to two key factors; use of ice and too much rest which forces your sprained ankle to try and heal itself. In fact, the Sprained ankle treatment through RICE is flawed. But why? The answer is simple, RICE does not allow flow of blood to the ankle, thus preventing macrophages, powerful immune cells (the good guys) from reaching the affected Sprained ankle and gobbling up the bad guys (swollen tissue and debris) as well as helping regeneration of new, healthy tissue on the affected