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An explanation that I was given (note: by a pharmacist, not a doctor or sports therapist) was that swelling is your body's way of "splinting" the injury so that
by harimau777 4y ago
An explanation that I was given (note: by a pharmacist, not a doctor or sports therapist) was that swelling is your body's way of "splinting" the injury so that you can keep moving in a survival situation. However, it delays/inhibits healing.
While survival now at the expense of long term healing was probably a good tradeoff for our ancestors living in the wild, it likely no longer makes sense for modern people outside of emergency situations.
I want to emphasize, that this was just an explanation that I was told. No actual evidence was given.
- nvrspyx 4y agoI've never heard the "splinting" explanation before. I've been told that it's the body's way of prioritizing the routing of plasma and red/white blood cells to the damaged area for cell repair and immune response as well as clearing out damaged tissue. I've also been told that the only bad inflammation is chronic inflammation. This was from a sports medicine doctor during a conversation about our sports trainers. The doctor was also against the heavy use of cryotherapy by our trainers because, according to her, it prolonged recovery. She actually encouraged applying heat instead of cold for non-injuries (e.g., post-workout, pre-competition, etc.) where your body may not have an inflammatory response to increase blood flow to the areas and that applying cold would just increase the chance of actual injury.
- kristiandupont 4y agoThat is a fine example of a third explanation which seems equally plausible to me. Of course, the topic is very similar to all the conversations about ChatGPT: are eyebrows "made" to protect the eyes from dripping sweat? No, because evolution has no intention. But it sure was convenient.