Good nutrition key in fast bone healing
Posted on Monday, December 1, 2008
Rule No. 1: Don’t break your bones.
Rule No. 2: If you do break your bones, help them heal.
So what does a broken bone need to heal ? Stability. To keep the two ends of broken bone together, be good and wear any protective splints you’re given and use crutches as instructed.
Good circulation. Blood flow carries oxygen, nutrients and cellular building blocks to connect and heal broken tissue. This process of healing is called “remodeling.” Any condition that impedes blood flow — such as smoking — impedes healing.
Some bones tend to heal faster than others. Bones in the toes, for example, usually heal quickly because they are fairly stable and have an excellent blood supply. Bones in the wrist typically receive less blood flow and therefore can take longer to heal. Nutrition. Much of the “glue” that mends broken bones is found in food. These nutrients are especially important to bone healing:
Protein such as collagen helps to knit broken bones back together. Protein is found primarily in eggs, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, soy and other beans, and dairy foods.
Vitamin C is essential to collagen formation. And it promotes the healing of wounds and broken bones. Good sources are fresh foods such as peppers, strawberries, broccoli, tomatoes, oranges and other citrus fruit.
Calcium is the primary mineral used to build and repair bone. And vitamin D helps the body absorb calcium. Good sources are vitamin D-enriched calcium tablets, dairy products, greens (spinach, turnip, mustard ) and other foods. By the way, the upper limit for daily calcium intake is 2, 500 milligrams, broken bone or not.
Vitamin K helps in bone repair as well. Leafy greens like kale, Swiss chard and spinach are excellent sources of vitamin K.
“Do you want pain medication ?” the emergency room doctor asks. Hmm. Sleep is essential to bone repair and you can’t sleep if pain wakes you. But medications that reduce the pain and inflammation caused by a broken bone can also slow down the healing process if relied on too long. Even though the pain and inflammation are... painful, they produce chemicals that are important in the first stages of tissue repair. Excessive use of pain and anti-inflammatory medicine like aspirin and ibuprofen block the release of these chemicals.
Once a broken bone completes the healing process, it is totally restored. “The healed area is brand-new, without a scar. Usually thicker, the new bone may even be stronger than the old,” said Dr. Martin Yahiro, a Baltimore orthopedist and consultant to the Food and Drug Administration.
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