Injury recovery is rough. If you’re dealing with a significant injury, you could be out of commission or months. Millions of people deal with chronic issues related to injuries that linger for years and decades. Some people never fully recover. Whether you’re dealing with a minor ankle sprain or are just out of some form of major corrective surgery, you need all the help you can get to get back on your feet and feeling whole again.
Your recovery plan will vary from injury to injury. Hopefully, you have doctors and other medical professionals who can offer advice and help you rehabilitate in a timely fashion. It’s always recommended to heed their advice. The building blocks of recovery like rest, physical therapy, keeping any open wounds clean, taking medicines as prescribed and others are critical to your physical as well as mental health.
There are also some things you can do that are a bit outside of the box when it comes to healing an injury. In this article, we’ll cover the basics of injury recovery as well as four unknown ways you can get back in top shape faster.
The Injury Recovery Basics
People likely never pay more attention to their bodies than when they are injured and can’t function the way they want. If you have stitches on your arm, for example, you’re going to be particularly mindful of where you place it, what touches it, how often you clean it, and how it’s feeling in general. If you disregard your recovery and just assume it will happen on its own, you’re likely going to be managing your recovery for longer. Carelessness can leave you open to things like infection or reinjury. Here are the recovery basics you need to follow:
Rest – Rest is a critical part of injury recovery. Not only should you be resting your injured body part, like an ankle or a shoulder, but you should be giving your entire body enough rest. When part of your body is hurt, your other body parts and systems step up to compensate for any loss in performance. What you often get is a stressed body that could end up with other injuries. Avoid exerting yourself, get proper amounts of sleep, and don’t do anything that could reinjure yourself.
See a Doctor – Some injuries don’t require medical attention. However, if you hurt yourself to the point where you can walk, see, or lose some other important bodily function, then you should see a doctor. They can prescribe medicines to help your recovery and tell you what you need to know to get better faster.
Proper Injury Care – Disregarding injury care will only make it last longer. You need to keep an injury cleaned, wrapped, elevated, iced, or whatever else you can do to make yourself comfortable and help your body heal. If you’re in doubt about what you need to do, you can always ask your doctor for advice on injury care.
The Unknown Ways to Heal Injury
Once you’ve got the basics covered, you’re ready to start doing things that will give you an edge when it comes to healing an injury. Here are the four unknown ways to heal an injury you can try today.
Healing Supplements – You can buy affordable vitamin supplements that promote healing and will make you feel better faster. Things like Vitamin C and Vitamin E will lift your antioxidant levels and promote overall health and wound healing. Vitamin K boosts your body’s ability to form blood clots that can close a wound faster and build better scabs. Iron improves oxygen transport in your body, which can lead to increased formation of hemoglobin.
There are many vitamins and other supplements you can take that will get your body back in shape faster. They are easily available online and won’t break the bank. Your wound could heal faster, and your overall health will be better as a result.
Take Some Collagen – Collagen is the main protein in the body that supports our structure. A significant percentage of the average human body is made of collagen. What most people don’t know, however, is that once you hit adult age, collagen production tapers off. It’s part of the aging process. You can fight this decline by eating things like bone broth, taking gelatin powder, or other collagen supplements.
Peptides and Healing – Research into peptides done during clinical tests showed that they boost wound-healing cells and things like tendon healing in animal models. In tests done on research rats, the peptide BPC-157 promoted the healing of animal tendons, bones, ligaments, and other parts of their bodies. It also promoted fibroblast density.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy – Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has for years been done by wealthy people and athletes. Now, though, the technology has progressed to the point where it’s more available for the masses. With hyperbaric oxygen therapy, patients sit in a pressurized chamber where they breathe 100 percent oxygen. The improved concentration of oxygen in the blood is believed to promote healing.
Whatever route you decide to treat your injury and manage your recovery, there’s no harm in trying different things to see how your body responds. The whole point is to overcome your injury and get back to where you were or even better than you were before the injury. Don’t be afraid to go a little outside the box once you have all of
