Q. How do I know if I should put heat or ice on an injury?

A. Author and educator Art Riggs says it’s difficult to establish a fail-safe rule for when to apply ice or heat.

The point of healing is to re-establish, and to help maintain, harmony. Balance, after all, is the normative state. According to Traditional Asian Medicine (TAM), the natural condition is the intricate and graceful dance whereby Yin and Yang, Blood and Qi, and the organs and the channels complement, support and counterbalance one another. It is in the disruption of this systemic equilibrium, or of the harmonious relationship between the body and its environment, that disease emerges.