Ankle Sprain: Will taking anti-inflammatories help healing?
Hello
So many of the people that come to us with ankle problems started off having a bad ankle sprain in the past that just got worse and worse. Many of those people used anti-inflammatories right after the sprain thinking it would help.
Let us see what the evidence says.
I found a study that looks at how well and strong ankle ligaments heal in fifty rats after an induced sprain if they are taking COX-2 inhibitor anti-inflammatories like celecoxib, etoricoxib and parecoxib.
They could not do this study on humans as you have to injury them on purpose to do it, it is not great for the rats either.
They found that “Celecoxib-treated/injured ligaments were found to have a 32% lower load to failure than untreated/ injured ligaments.”
This tells me that taking anti-inflammatories after an ankle sprain causes the ligaments to heal weaker than they were when they were uninjured.
The reason for this is simple, inflammation is good. It is the natural process the body uses to heal when we are injured. When you take anti-inflammatories you retard, disrupt, stop, or impair healing.
Of course, your injury would not heal as strong!!
I mean, would you switch off your oven 30 minutes into cooking a roast that needed 2 hours??
That is a wonderful way to have it be completely raw in the middle……
If your ankle has been a problem for a long time, taking the anti-inflammatories does nothing for you as there is no injury to heal.
If you want to get better, you will need to try something different like coming in to see us.
Jason
