When it comes to treating an injury, there's a lot of bad advice on the internet. Stretching, Surgery and Cortisone injections are not the solutions!
Rest is very important when recovering from an injury. Of course, too much rest can cause stiffness, but resting when you can will help you avoid further injury. While it is true that moving promotes blood flow, and in turn blood flow promotes healing, too much movement too soon in the healing process is a bad thing, as it only results in re-injury and a much longer recovery time. Certain exercises and stretches can be beneficial, but these should not be done until you are further along in the healing process. Also, you cannot keep doing the same level of activity you were doing before becoming injured. You need to let your body rest. You can gradually work your way back up to your regular activities, but this will take some time. You may want to consider activity modification. This means trading in high impact activities like running for low impact activities like swimming.
Bleeding should slow down if you raise an injury higher than your heart; however, this isn't necessary for any other kind of injury. Simply resting the injury is sufficient. You want to reduce any pressure or strain being placed on the injury, and elevating the injury might be one of the ways you do this. For example, if you have an injured leg, knee or foot you might want to use a footstool when you're sitting down, or may want to use a pillow under the injury when you're sleeping.
One of the biggest mistakes you can make during recovery is stopping treatment before your injury has finished healing. The healing process does not end once the pain stops. The healing process takes much longer than most people realize. (You can click here for the full story.) The key thing to remember is that long after the pain stops, your tissue is still healing. This means you need to continue doing BFST® treatments in order to complete the healing process. Doing regular BFST® treatments for several months after the pain is gone is extremely beneficial. Do a BFST® treatment prior to any physical activity to warm up your circulatory system and to help avoid re-injury.
A common myth is that the area where you're feeling the pain must be the exact spot where the injury is located. This is incorrect. While you can treat the painful area with cold and compression, you also need to make sure you treat the area of injury as well, because these aren't always one and the same. For example, you could have a pain in your neck that is actually being caused by a shoulder injury. That's why it's important to seek a diagnosis from a medical professional.
A TENS machine does not stimulate blood flow. TENS is an acronym that means Transcutaneous Electrical Nerve Stimulation. What a TENS machine is designed to do, is overstimulate the nerves to relieve pain. While it's desireable to reduce pain with an injury, using a TENS machine over an injury is not recommended. Having your muscles pulse and flex uncontrolled will cause further tissue damage and slow down healing. It is an important part of injury recovery, to feel the pain, and respect the pain. Pain is going to tell you when you're potentially causing further damage. Never mask the pain.
PRP or Platelet Rich Plasma is becoming a more mainstream way to treat injuries and chronic conditions. But, does it work? No. There are no clear studies found that proves that PRP injections have any positive effect at all. This is why PRP injections are not approved by FDA. Lots of doctors are now claiming to specialize in PRP injections, where they will inject your own plasma directly into the injured tissue. It is very dangerous to insert a needle into the injury site. This puts you at a high risk of further damage to your injury, as well as a potential for infection.
The FDA is increasing its oversight and enforcement to protect people from dishonest and unscrupulous stem cell clinics, while continuing to encourage innovation so that the medical industry can properly harness the potential of stem cell products. The only Stem Cell treatments that are approved by FDA are for patients with blood disorders. Unproven stem cell therapies are unsafe, and uneffective.
The purpose of physiotherapy is to help with strengthening the muscles surrounding your injury. Starting physiotherapy before your injury has had a chance to start healing and stabilize, will only cause further damage and more pain. Physiotherapists often say that you will experience discomfort and soreness after sessions, because you are training your body. This is not true. You need to work within your pain limits. If an exercise hurts, you need to stop that exercise because you're not ready yet. This is true throughout your entire recovery. Always respect the pain.
Cortisone injections are designed to temporarily relieve pain and swelling, however, they come with a variety of risks and side effects. These include skin discoloration, allergic reaction, infection and nerve damage. They're also associated with tendon rupture. That's why patients are advised against getting more than 3-4 cortisone shots into an area over the course of a year. Cortisone shots are not designed to heal the injury. They simply mask the pain and can cause you to feel a false sense of ability, leading to a higher likelihood of re-injury. If the cortisone shot is not administered properly, there's a chance that it won't have any effect. Some people are also unable to metabolize cortisone, meaning it would not provide them with any relief. In cases of Plantar Fibromas, cortisone shots can actually cause the Fibromas to spread and grow. Please visit our Cortisone Shots page for more information on the potential dangers of cortisone.
Painkillers should never be used during times of physical activity. This is because painkillers completely block the pain signal, making you totally unaware that you're doing more damage to the injured area. Painkillers mask the pain, tricking you into thinking you're better and able to push yourself physically, when this will only result in further injury. Make sure you restrict painkillers to times when your body is at rest. An ideal time to take painkillers is before bed. Using painkillers when you're active means risking complete rupture of your tissue, and this means surgery and an even longer recovery.
While painkillers are effective at relieving pain and inflammation, they are not designed to address the root cause. You need more than painkillers if you really want to heal.
While using a heating pad on an injury can feel good due to the warmth, they do not provide any healing benefits. People sometimes make the mistake of thinking the BFST® device is an "overpriced heating pad", but the reality is that BFST® can heal soft tissue injuries, and heating pads can't. BFST® stimulates healthy blood flow in the area of your injury, deep below the skin. This increase in blood flow works to speed up the healing process. Heating pads can't do this. They simply bring blood to the surface of your skin, making it hot to the touch. BFST® technology far surpasses the heating pad in terms of therapeutic benefits.
Stabilizing an injury while you're active is very important in reducing the risk of re-injury, but rigid splints reduce movement so this means they also restrict the blood flow required for healing. Wearing a splint should ideally be limited to times when you're active and if you need to restrict unconscious movement while you're asleep. Remove the splint when you're not active, rest your injury and allow your blood flow to circulate freely. An alternative to wearing a splint during activity is KB Support Tape -- this will stabilize your injury and will provide compression, but won't restrict movement and blood flow.
While the BFST® device is a relatively recent invention, the idea behind it has been around for a very long time. BFST® is based on diathermy, which is used to treat a variety of soft tissue injuries and health conditions. Our products work. We have FDA Registration, Health Canada Certification and lots of customer testimonials to back this up. If our medical devices didn't do what we say they can do, we wouldn't be able to list them as medical devices.
Our BFST® device is a Class II FDA Registered medical device. It has also passed the Health Canada approval process. This means it is held to very high standards of safety, quality and performance. If you're not convinced, take a look at our Customer Testimonials. These are 100% genuine reviews from our happy customers.
We usually think of inflammation as presenting a certain way: red, tender and swollen; however, inflammation isn't always external. Internal inflammation is not visible to the naked eye. It affects the soft tissues (ligaments, muscles and tendons) deep below the skin and fat. Internal inflammation can be reduced the same way that external inflammation is: with cold and compression. So even if you don't have visible swelling, your pain could be a sign of internal inflammation, which is why cold and compression should be applied for about 2-10 days, depending on the severity of your injury/condition.
Most people think that RICE - Rest, Ice, Compression & Elevation - is the formula to follow when treating inflammation, swelling and pain. The truth is that ice can actually freeze your skin and numb your nerves, causing 'cold burns' and even permanent damage to your underlying tissue. The proper solution is RCCE® - Rest, Cold, Compression & Elevation. We don't want to apply ice - we want to apply cold that is just above freezing. Yes, you want cold - and lots of it - but not so cold that it is below the freezing point of water.
ColdCure® technology was developed specifically to address the need for a cold compression device that does not freeze the skin and underlying tissue. ColdCure® gel packs pose no threat of cold burns. This makes them much safer to use than other products that use ice, which can cause the skin to freeze, leading to permanent damage. Our gel packs are completely safe to use for extended treatment durations, meaning faster relief of pain and swelling. Our ColdCure® technology is a huge improvement on regular ice packs.
Surgery is not actually required in order to heal most soft tissue injuries. A partial tear can be healed without surgery in the majority of cases. Surgery should only be considered if your tissue is completely ruptured (in two separate pieces). There are many risks and complications associated with surgery, including nerve damage, infection, tendon rupture, and more. There is also no guarantee that it will get rid of the problem for good.
If you do undergo surgery, you can still use our BFST® and ColdCure® products before the procedure to help prepare your body, and after the procedure to accelerate your recovery.
King Brand® soft tissue rehabilitation medical products are the #1 choice by top Athletic Therapists and Medical Practitioners worldwide. We provide guaranteed results and customer satisfaction. Like all King Brand® products, there simply isn't a better performing option. All King Brand® products come with a 100% satisfaction guarantee. Try our products and if you are not completely impressed, you can send them back for a full refund. We know you will love them though because thousands of people already use them and rave about the results.
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King Brand® BFST® and ColdCure® Wraps are FDA Registered medical devices. They have also passed the Health Canada, ISO 13485, ISO 10993 and IEC 60601-1 3rd Edition approval processes. When it comes to material safety, ISO 10993 is of particular importance. This regulation ensures that our devices are made from materials that are safer than the materials used to make most baby products. This includes toys, clothes and even diapers. Part of being an FDA Registered company means that our products are made from high quality, biocompatible materials. These devices are manufactured and tested to the highest safety standards in the industry.