Cold Gel reduces pain and promotes recovery

Ice Power, a cold gel preparation for soft tissue injury, has been proven to reduce pain significantly as reported in a Finnish randomized controlled prospective trial. A shortened report of the study has been published in the highly regarded publication of the American Academy of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation.

The controlled clinical trial showed that the effectiveness of the Ice Power cold gel begins immediately after application and decreases pain by half after one week of treatment. The pain associated disability also decreased significantly more rapidly with cold gel than placebo product.

The study was conducted by Dr. Olavi Airaksinen at Kuopio University Hospital in Finland. In the study 65 patients, who had soft tissue injuries of the ankle, knee, leg or hand areas were randomly assigned to groups for Ice Power cold gel treatment or the placebo control group.

Patients were included to this study after clinical examination. Both groups used a gel treatment four times a day for 14 days. Clinical intervention was made after one, two and four weeks from the beginning of the study. Other cold therapy was not allowed, but medication with anti-inflammatory painmedicine and bandages were allowed in both groups.

Olavi Airaksinen states: "We measured patients' pain both at rest and in motion with VAS, Visual Analogue Scale. The overall benefit of therapy and patients' satisfaction were also measured by questionnaire. Clinical examination and estimation of the benefit of therapy was carried out during each visit by the treating physician.

Blood circulation shown to be three times better

The patients' pain decreased in the Ice Power group from 59 to 30 during the first week versus 58 to 45 in the placebo group. After two weeks the numbers further reduced to 14 and 26 respectfully. After four weeks Ice Power stood at 7 versus 13 for the placebo control.

Patient satisfaction for the treatment was 71 in Ice Power group and 44 in placebo group.

During the main study, it was additionally investigated in 20 patients, what happens physically in the skin's blood circulation with Ice Power cold gel treatment and other gel treatments. These tests were made in a laboratory. There were shown to be big differences between the Ice Power cold gel and other gels. Ice Power increased the blood circulation 300 % versus a result of 20-30 % with other products.

A good combination of treatments

The medicinal action from the Ice Power cold gel is different than of medicines and physiotherapy. The effect of Ice Power comes mostly from its ethereal oils that lower the temperature of the skin slowly by 5 degrees. This is reflected in the deeper tissues too, thereby helping to increase the area of trauma affected by the application.

Dr. Olavi Airaksinen states that there is reason that all three methods, medicines, physiotherapy and cold gel, would be a very good combination in the treatment of soft tissue traumas.