Ive used ice on the affected joint,and it seemed to help short term, but I noticed a coralation between the use of ice on rsd to the length of a flare. I would use ice and although it gave me short time relief [acouple of hours] my flare would last as many days as i used ice, But when i;d come off the use of ice and rough it out,,I;d go a couple of weeks without a flare. The inconsistant part of this , is that one side of my body with rsd , will not tolerate ice at all and gets inflamed with pain immediatly And one side which is the original site, allows the use of ice...go-figure,,. Once again, there we have it,,different degrees or different types of rsd,reacts differently on everyone,,,,,,,,,bobber