The protocol everyone was taught
Twist your ankle? RICE — rest, ice, compression, elevation. It's been the default advice for injuries since 1978, when Dr. Gabe Mirkin introduced the protocol. For decades, it was standard practice in sports medicine, physiotherapy clinics, and emergency rooms.
There's just one problem: the science doesn't support it. And the person who invented it said so himself.
The creator's retraction
In 2014 and again in 2015, Dr. Mirkin was published in the American Journal of Sports Medicine essentially saying he was wrong. His own research — along with a growing body of evidence from other researchers — showed that all four components of RICE are designed to do one thing: suppress inflammation. And inflammation, it turns out, is exactly what the body needs to heal.
Kevin discussed this at length during his appearance on Mancave Medicine, and it's one of the topics that surprises people most.
What inflammation actually does
When you injure your elbow, your body immediately sends a cascade of enzymes, peptides, and healing agents to the area. It also flushes out damaged material — what Kevin describes as medical artifacts that need to be cleared before new tissue can form.
This is inflammation. It's a cycle: bring in good material, remove waste, bring in more, remove more. The body heals itself through this process.
When you put ice on an injury or take an anti-inflammatory, you interrupt that cycle. The swelling may go down temporarily, but you've slowed the body's natural ability to repair itself.
Inflammation vs swelling — they're not the same thing
This is a distinction that matters. Inflammation is a healing cycle — fluid moves in, waste moves out, the body repairs. Swelling is what happens when that cycle gets stuck. Fluid keeps arriving, but the body can't flush the waste. The area balloons.
The instinct is to reach for ice to reduce swelling. But Kevin's approach is different: the most effective way to reduce swelling is to trigger a new cycle of inflammation. The body's own healing process is more effective than anything you can apply externally.
Kevin has treated clients with ballooned ankles from sprains and watched the swelling visibly reduce within minutes — not from ice, but from RAPID techniques that stimulate the body to restart its healing cycle.
What to do instead of RICE
Newer protocols like PEACE and LOVE have replaced RICE in evidence-based practice, but the principle is simple: do the opposite of what RICE prescribes.
- Instead of rest: movement. Gentle, appropriate movement helps the healing cycle continue.
- Instead of ice: nothing, or light heat. Let the body's inflammatory response do its work.
- Instead of compression and elevation: let the body heal naturally. Movement is more effective than immobilization.
This aligns with how RAPID NeuroFascial Reset works in general — the treatment is active, movement-based, and works with the body's natural processes rather than against them.
Why this matters for RAPID treatment
One of the effects of RAPID NeuroFascial Reset is what Kevin calls a cascading inflammatory response. The treatment deliberately triggers the body's healing cycle — which is exactly what you want. This is also why Kevin advises clients not to rub the treated area, apply ice, or take anti-inflammatories after a session. Doing so would counteract the healing process the treatment just initiated.
The inflammatory response from RAPID also nourishes and hydrates the fascia, which is part of why people often feel looser and lighter after treatment — even in areas that weren't directly worked on. What clients describe after treatment often reflects this whole-body effect.
The takeaway
Inflammation is not something to fight. It's something to support. The body already knows how to heal — the job of treatment is to help it do that more effectively, not to shut the process down.
This is part of what makes RAPID fundamentally different from approaches that focus on symptom suppression. Whether you're recovering from a sports injury, managing chronic back pain, or dealing with a recent sprain, the principle is the same: work with the body, not against it.
If you're dealing with an injury or recurring pain and want to understand how your body can work with the healing process rather than against it, book a session with Kevin in Waterloo. You can also learn more about what a first visit looks like.