How To Treat MCL Injury With Lava Sand Heating Pad
There are so many different injuries out there that you can sustain while playing sports.
Injury your MCL is one of those things.
You can treat your minor MCL injury with lava sand heating pads by applying them as a cold pack for 20 minutes at a time every 2 hours throughout the day.
Read on to find out more about what an MCL injury is.
Not medical advice
Before I get into the bulk of this article, it is important to know that I do not have a medical degree.
The things I write here is information I have found while doing research online.
I present this data from reliable resources and give additional information on lava sand heating pads and how they work best for these situations.
If you feel like you have an MCL injury, you should make sure to visit the doctor and get checked out.
What I am suggesting here is information to recover, but not a full treatment.
Make sure to visit your doctor and get checked out.
This isn't an end all solution.
What is the MCL?
According to KidsHealth.org:
"The medial collateral ligament (MCL) is one of the ligaments in the knee joint. A ligament is a tough, flexible band of tissue that holds bones and cartilage together.
The MCL is on the part of the knee closest to the other knee (the "medial" side). It connects the bottom of the thighbone (femur) to the top of the shinbone (tibia). The MCL helps keep the knee from moving side to side."
https://kidshealth.org/en/teens/mcl-injuries.html#:~:text=The%20medial%20collateral%20ligament%20(MCL,the%20%22medial%22%20side).
So your MCL helps with the bending of your knee and helps to keep your knee from bending the wrong way.
An MCL injury is the most common of the knee injuries, being reported in about 8% of athletes.
This means that it is really important to make sure to get checked out and get treated right away if you are injured.
Now, the next question is, how do you injure your MCL?
According to KidsHealth.org:
"Most medial collateral ligament tears happen during athletic activity, such as when someone:
- changes direction or twists the knee while running
- jumps and lands in a way that twists the knee
The MCL also can tear if the knee is hit forcefully from the side."
You can see from the description above that it is pretty understandable why athletes are pretty regularly injuring their MCL.
This is especially true for basketball and football players.
It is also common for skiing, soccer, and tennis.
When athletes play sports, it is pretty normal to be changing directions or jumping in the air and landing on an awkward way.
So you can see why athletes are hurting their MCL.
To get diagnosed with an MCL tear, seek the help of a medical professional.
According to ClevelandClinic.org:
"The symptoms of an MCL tear can vary based on how severe your tear is. If your MCL (medial collateral ligament) is torn, you may experience the following signs and symptoms:
- Hearing a popping sound at the time of the injury.
- Experiencing pain in your knee.
- Having tenderness along the inner side of your knee.
- Having stiffness and swelling in your knee.
- Feeling like your knee is going to “give out” if you put weight on it.
- Feeling your knee joint lock or catch when you use it."
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21979-mcl-tear#:~:text=If%20your%20MCL%20(medial%20collateral,inner%20side%20of%20your%20knee.
Be aware that if you are doing an activity like running, basketball, soccer, etc. and you hear a popping sound during the injury, it is likely that you tore your MCL.
It is a sign if you can only walk lightly on that leg after the injury occurs.
But again, as mentioned above, if you feel like you've injured your MCL, please seek advice from a medical professional.
They will be able to perform different checks on your knee to tell you what exactly is going on.
MCL Tear Recovery
Once you have been checked out by a medical professional, they should be able to give you additional advice as to what you should do for your recovery.
But the general consensus during recovery is to use the RICE method.
Rest
First, make sure you are resting your knee for a good amount of time.
This means taking a break from your sports activity for awhile.
If you continue to play sports on an MCL tear, you could make the injury a lot worse.
So it becomes very important to rest the injured area so your body to recoup the way that it needs to.
Ice
Ice your knee to help with the recovery.
Ice on the knee helps constrict the blood vessels and decreases the amount of circulation to what area.
This in turn decreases the amount of pain you are going to have in that area and also reduces the swelling.
You can put ice directly onto the area or you could use a lava sand heating pad (which we will cover a little bit more later in this article).
Compression
Using a compression sleeve on your knee might be beneficial for your situation.
Just like ice, the compression sleeve is going to constrict the blood vessels and decrease any swelling.
This again is very helpful for your overall healing from the injury.
Elevation
Make sure to elevate the leg of your injured knee.
Just as above, elevating your leg will allow your blood to focus on other areas of your body.
This will again decrease the swelling and allow the body to heal the knee.
One last note on the recovery, it may be advisable to get a pair of crutches to walk around with.
This will help decrease the amount of walking you are doing on the injured knee.
And if you aren't walking on it as much as you normally would, this will help your body to recover.
Using lava sand heating pad's with your recovery
Now that you know what an MCL tear is, now you can spend some time treating yourself during the recovery process.
Again, keep in mind that your local doctor should give you advise on the best way to recover.
If you are advised to ice your knee to help with the recovery, this is when the lava sand heating pad comes into play.
First, you'll want to make sure you have the heating pad in your freezer for a few hours.
This will allow the lava sand within the heating pad to get to the cold it needs to.
Once the heating pad is cold enough, then apply the cold heating pad to the injured knee.
Don't apply the cold pack to the knee for more than 20 minutes at a time.
Once you have the cold pack on the knee for the given period of time, then give it to someone to put it back in the freezer.
Then, 2 hours later, have them put it out of the freezer again so you can apply it to your knee.
Continue to do this every 2 hours throughout the day: 20 minutes on the knee, 2 hours off.
During this during your waking hours and then take a break from it during the night.
The lava sand heating pad is great for applying cold on your knee for a few reasons.
First, it keeps the cold for a long period of time.
In my experience, a rice or wheat cold pack will only last you 10 to 15 minutes and then you have to freeze it again.
The lava sand heating pad will last you at least 30 minutes, if you decide to apply it to your knee longer than the given 20 minutes.
Second, the lava sand heating pad is good for switching between hot and cold.
With rice or wheat heating pads, they can be switched between hot and cold, but this typically leads to the heating pad getting ruined.
And if the rice and wheat inside the heating pad ends up getting ruined, then you need to purchase another heating pad.
This won't happen with the lava sand heating pad, though.
Because the insides is lava sand, it won't spoil or go back in the process of heating up or cooling down.
Lastly, you can easily way the lava sand heating pad if it ends up getting dirty.
If you are applying the lava sand heating pad to your knee as a cold pack multiple times a day, it is inevitable that it will eventually get dirty.
And when it goes, you can easily get the whole lava sand heating pad wet to wash it off.
With rice or wheat heating pads, you can't wash them completely, you can only spot wash them.
But with the lava sand heating pad, you can get the whole thing wet.
Once you get it wet and it is clean, then put your oven on 200 degrees.
Place the lava sand heating pad on a cookie drying rack and then place the rack in the oven.
Then wait a few hours for it to dry out.
After that, you should be set to use it again.
Whereas, with rice and wheat, you can't just get the whole thing wet without having to replace it.
So overall, your best option is to get a lava sand heating pad.