HOW DOES ICE HELP SWELLING?

Whenever you get injured, your body responds by sending a bunch of blood cells and fluids to the affected body part to help it heal. Because more fluid is rushing to that area than usual, it starts to swell up. But when you put something super-cold, like ice, on an injury, the tissues and blood vessels will stop flowing to that body part and begin to contract. This causes the swelling to stop. Even though ice will help keep swelling down, leaving an ice pack on for too long can actually do more harm than good. If the injury site gets too cold, your body will send even more blood cells and fluids to that area to try to warm it back up. You should only keep ice on a swollen body part for 10-20 minutes at a time.