[DaveyDave]

Hey up! Just wondered what the general opinion is on the best way to improve blood flow to heal a wrist injury.

I went to the physio about mine and he said to use Dave Mac's cold water treatment, which has worked for my fingers but it seems when I put my whole hand and wrist in, the 'Lewis Reaction' doesn't work nearly as well... I just get a cold hand and half an hour of boredom, whereas when it was just my fingers my hands felt flushed and warm. Also I'm pretty sure I'm using the same temperature water.

Would the best idea be to do the cold/hot/cold/hot 2 minutes thing instead?

Thanks!

[iwasmexican]

i buggered my wrist last month and yeah the hot/ cold thing works great, i did it for 5 minutes, with 3 sets of hot/ cold. stretching every spare waking minute of the day is also handy.

[Stevie]

Hi,
As daft/simple as this may sound. Gravity obviously affects blood flow, hence swollen hands when walking long distances swaying your arms. By lifting your arms above your head you reduce the muscle pumps ability to supply the arms/hands with blood and as everyone has experienced, you get a numb sensation. By flushing a large volume of blood from your hands when
raised as you lower them you get a rush of blood back to your hands. Although I have not looked for an journals or evidence to back this, it should work on the some principal as the Lewis Reaction.
It is also possible to help blood flow back to the core by gently massaging the extremety from furthest point down towards the core, basically aiding the muscle pump.

[DaveyDave]

Cool thanks! Any other advice? Ibuprofen? Swinging my arms around? Eye of newt? There's very little I won't do to get back to climbing...

Ooh also I have some wrist braces but not sure if I should use them so long after the injury?

[tomtom]

Cool thanks! Any other advice? Ibuprofen? Swinging my arms around? Eye of newt? There's very little I won't do to get back to climbing...

Ooh also I have some wrist braces but not sure if I should use them so long after the injury?

I have a small quantity of 'Air breathed by Lagerstarfish' which apparently has magical healing powers (if he hasnt had too much garlic).. I could be persuaded to part with it for a moderately ludicrous fee

Simply holding the flask of sacred vapour close the wounded area will promote healing*

*as used by Accapai

[DaveyDave]

I have a small quantity of 'Air breathed by Lagerstarfish' which apparently has magical healing powers (if he hasnt had too much garlic).. I could be persuaded to part with it for a moderately ludicrous fee

Simply holding the flask of sacred vapour close the wounded area will promote healing*

*as used by Accapai

Sounds both illustrious and potent. 

[account_inactive]

As a side to this I thought that apart from carpel tunnel syndrome most wrist injuries came from the forearm. Is this true?

[iwasmexican]

Ooh also I have some wrist braces but not sure if I should use them so long after the injury?

when i went to the physio she said stay the hell away from wristbraces, you want it moving as much as possible to help it heal, even if its pretty uncomfortable

[lukeinaz]

What type of injury are we dealing with here?

[slackline]

Damaged wrist. 

[Fultonius]

What is it that's wrong with your wrist? Ignoring slackers here for a moment...

The reason I ask is that the wrist is much better supplied by blood than the fingers, so your attempt to increase blood flow might be a waste of time.

There's not really much SCIENCE behind the whole pulley-injury-Lewis-reaction type thing anyway! It seems to work but I don't know of any studies that have done any comparisons with doing nothing to see if there's actually in improvement.

[duncan]

Do you have a diagnosis?

There are a number of possible reasons for wrist pain, local (eg Tenosynovitis) or distant (referred pain from neck/shoulder/elbow). Icing something locally will not help if the problem is distant to the pain and unlikely to help a deep structure (e.g. TFCC - look it up).

If you want to try ice, rather than dipping the whole hand in icy water, try crushed ice in a wet tea-towel to the spot, or massage with an ice cube.

[DaveyDave]

What type of injury are we dealing with here?

2 injuries... Right one's a sprain from about a month ago, and Mr Physio says the other is something to do with the ligament (can't quite remember exactly). Said to do the cold water thing but it didn't really work vis-a-vis increasing blood flow. Mainly I've been stretching and using hot and cold over a week or so, and they seem to have helped quite a lot.

[lukeinaz]

I have multiple wrist problems as well and I have noticed loads of easy climbing is the best way to improve blood flow to the area.  Stay off the slopers for a bit.  If you find yourself having to "shake out" your wrist after a move you are probably climbing too hard.

As a side to this I thought that apart from carpel tunnel syndrome most wrist injuries came from the forearm. Is this true?

CTS can actually be induced by enlarging the forearm to the extent of the muscle body growing into the wrist.