Why Ice Delays Recovery

The doctor who coined RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) has since retracted this decades old advice on sports medicine and admitted that the research into tissue healing does not support his prior recommendations. Chinese medicine has been saying it forever, "ice is for dead people". Why then does mainstream medicine still rely on this approach? It's so deeply engrained into the medical community and yet it often makes people worse, especially long term.
http://www.drmirkin.com/fitness/why-ice-delays-recovery.html