Cristen

All right. Well, I’ve got an email here from Annette and she is writing in response to our recent podcast on pain. And she says that she thinks, “I think part of the reason you get a different reaction from men and women may have less to do with evolution and more to do with sports because icing is a common practice among most athletes from high school sports up. My husband played football in high school and college, and he frequently iced a sore ankle or bad knee by filling up a garbage can with water and ice and placing the affected limb in it for about ten minutes. Recently I had a dirt bike injury and hurt my hand pretty bad, and my husband’s solution was to have me ice my hand in one of our cooking pots abou
t three times a day.

It does burn and sting for the first five minutes or so which may be why that was the limit given because after that time period, your limb goes numb and the pain stops. You just have to get past the initial burn, and then it doesn’t hurt at all. Men tend to play and/or watch more combative sports, and may be more familiar with this practice. I think the pain would be mitigated and study certainly compromised that people who had experience icing or are familiar with its practice. Understanding that it has a purpose can, in my opinion, lower the amount of pain you experience.

Molly

Right. I think she was writing about all those laboratory tests we talked about, where people just stuck their hand in a bowl of ice.

Cristen

Right, to see how long they could -

Molly

So men might have had the upper hand if they’ve ever had an injury.

Cristen

So guys, if you have anything that you want to say to us, we’d like to hear your thoughts. Our email is momstuff@howstuffworks.com, and during the week, if you want to see what Molly and I are up to, you should head over to our blog. It is called How To Stuff. And if you want to read some articles we’ve written in addition to checking out our blog, in addition to seeing the site that we spend lots of time on, you should head over to howstuffworks.com.

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