How your body can repair itself from the inside out, and the diet that can help fix your bones
- A dietitian recovering from foot surgery shares four key nutrients that aid in healing broken bones and tissues – and where to find them
- Choosing the right foods – and heeding doctors’ orders – can speed up the natural convalescence period
I’ve spent the past week in a recliner, staring at my toes peeking out from a giant bandage on my foot. Surgery was a success, my surgeon assures me. Now the real healing begins.
Doctor’s orders are for me to stay strictly non weight bearing for six weeks. Guess it’s a good season to stay home anyway. Plenty of time to catch up on long overdue projects. And thank you, God, for whoever invented those handy knee scooters – so much better than crutches.
I also have time to research what I can do to speed up this process … or at least stay on track with my expected healing time.
Our bodies have a built-in system to heal themselves, says US integrative wellness doctor Andrew Weil, clinical professor of internal medicine and the founder and director of the programme in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Weil, who received his medical degree and his undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University, says injured skin and broken bones can literally knit themselves back together.
Medical experts say that, as long as two broken fragments of bone are brought together and stay that way, specialised cells go to work to fill the gaps with new tissue.
This process is so efficient that, over time, bone can completely restore itself to its original structure.