A broken bone, no matter where it is in your body, can take away your mobility in the blink of an eye.
Fast healing is essential to get you back on your feet. This is especially important if you suffer from a bone disease like osteoporosis, where broken bones can become a common occurrence.
Keep reading for some of our top tips to help heal broken bones faster.
Balance Your Diet
Healing is a restorative process that your body is pretty good at. But your body can’t heal without the right building blocks. That’s why a properly balanced diet is essential to heal broken bones faster.
Bones are made mostly from a protein called collagen. Your body needs plenty of protein to build new collagen for bone healing. Eat lots of protein-rich foods like lean meats, low-fat dairy products, beans, nuts, and fortified cereals.
Leafy green vegetables like collard greens, spinach, broccoli, and kale are high in calcium, another important part of bone repair. Eggs and whole grains, like brown rice and oatmeal, provide iron, another ingredient for making collagen. Citrus fruits, potatoes, and peppers have high levels of vitamin C, another necessary vitamin used to make collagen.
Talk to your doctor before beginning any dietary supplement program. You should be able to get the vitamins and minerals you need from your diet. But if your doctor suggests supplements, follow their advice.
Avoid Bad Habits
We’ve talked about the things you should put into your body when you’re healing from a broken bone, now let’s discuss the things you shouldn’t put in your body.
You may enjoy a co*cktail or two from time to time, but it’s best to avoid alcohol completely when you’re healing. Alcohol interacts with the body’s ability to build new bone and bone grown with alcohol in the body is weaker than bone grown without alcohol present. Alcohol also impairs your judgment and makes you unsteady on your feet, increasing the risk you’ll break the bone again.
Smoking is also a no-no. It affects how blood flows through the body and has been shown to severely hinder your body’s ability to heal.
Avoid processed food while you’re nursing a broken bone. Processed foods often lack many vitamins and minerals. This leads to lots of empty calories that don’t contribute to those building blocks we discussed in the last section.
Processed foods are also more likely to contain salt. While some salt is essential for good health, too much salt can cause your body to expel calcium in urine rather than absorbing it. Read food labels and limit salt intake to six grams per day max.
Physical Therapy to Heal Broken Bones Faster
Your doctor will likely prescribe a treatment plan to help get you back on your feet. Often, that plan involves physical therapy.
A trained physical therapist knows how to get you moving without risking further injury. They specialize in working on the soft tissue surrounding the fracture site. This brings fresh blood and oxygen to the bone, healing it quicker.
Physical therapy builds strength after the limited mobility which often follows immediately after a fracture. Your therapist works with you on exercises to strengthen the muscles around the fracture site. They’ll also work on improving your range of motion and strengthening the surrounding joints.
This type of physical therapy treatment helps heal broken bones faster and helps prevent future broken bones by improving your strength, flexibility, and balance.
If you’ve recently had some bad luck in the broken bone department, talk to your doctor about a physical therapy treatment plan. At St. William’s, our licensed therapists are here to support you throughout the healing process. Call us today for more information!
