Keep in Iinjury that swelling is recoevry because it helps our body identify the area that needs to be repaired. Stay up to date with news from Sanford Health. Injured athletes don't sweat as much as athletes in training and they might not think about the importance of maintaining their hydration levels.

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The Role of Nutrition in Injury Rehabilitation and Recovery Injuries can be Nutrrition, such as a scratch or Nutrition and injury recovery, or much more severe, such Nutrition for athletic performance a torn ACL fecovery broken rexovery. Serious Nutrition and injury recovery — rrecovery that limit limb or whole body mobility, such as a fracture or ligament Nutrition and injury recovery — Electrolytes deficiency over time cause a decrease in muscle growth and protein. This, in turn, will lead to a reduction in strength and neuromuscular control. The consequent period of rehabilitation to regain performance often means that an athlete will also have to sit on the sidelines for a while. Key nutrients work daily to assist muscle growth, as well as ongoing recovery and repair. But what happens when an athlete can no longer train or perform due to an injury? What can help an athlete to heal faster and get back in the game sooner?

Nutrition and injury recovery -

Rest and rehab are likely part of your recovery plan, but what you eat matters too. Just like performance nutrition helps you perform your best, rehabilitation nutrition helps you recover faster as part of a holistic treatment plan.

Try the following fueling strategies to help optimize your recovery, minimize muscle loss, and prevent weight gain. Decreasing your food intake too much can slow down healing and prolong recovery. In addition to its role in athletic performance , protein is one of the most important nutrients to support repair and recovery.

Eating enough protein at the right times can help you preserve your muscle mass while also promoting the repair process. Eat at least 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day.

For example, someone who weighs pounds would need grams of protein daily. To get the most benefit from protein, eat smaller doses of 20—40 grams at frequent intervals throughout the day, such as over 3—4 meals or snacks.

Good sources of protein include lean red meat, poultry, fish, dairy, eggs, beans, nuts, and seeds. Choosing protein sources high in leucine—such as dairy products, meats, and poultry—might be of additional benefit.

Omega-3 fatty acids can be particularly helpful in managing inflammation after an injury or surgery. Foods high in omega-3s include salmon, sardines, tuna, herring, chia and flax seeds, and walnuts. Other fats that help with healing include unsaturated fats such as olive oil, avocados, nuts, and seeds.

Examples of vitamins and minerals that support tissue repair and recovery include Vitamins C and D, as well as zinc, potassium, and calcium. At the same time, having a diet low in zinc has been linked with delayed healing and a higher chance of infection.

This type of protein plays a critical role when it comes to repairing skin and cartilage. Instead, you should focus on giving your body the nutrients it needs to create this natural compound.

Collagen is made from vitamin C, copper, zinc, and a combination of additional proteins. That said, our body slowly loses the ability to make collagen, so working with a physician is crucial to finding the best approach. Besides being painful, a bad injury can keep you out of action for a long period of time.

In addition to taking your physical therapy seriously, you should also make changes to your diet in order to accelerate your recovery as much as possible. If you want to learn more about getting the best nutrition for injury recovery or our orthopedic services, please schedule an appointment and our team will be glad to help.

September 18, How Does Food Affect Our Recovery Period? How to Reduce Downtime with the Right Nutrition for Injury and Recovery All athletes are different, so you need to ensure that the meal plan you choose will address the specific trauma you suffered.

Here are some of the foods that promote healing and can help you make a faster recovery. Muscle and Soft-Tissue Injuries Muscle and soft tissue injuries can range from sprains to torn ligaments and ruptured tendons.

High-Protein Content Any athlete researching nutrition for injury and recovery will come across protein-rich foods.

Essential Fatty Acids Essential fatty acids play a key role in the regulation of inflammation. Vitamin C and Antioxidants Vitamin C plays a huge role in your recovery as it can help keep your skin, bones, and soft tissues in good condition.

Bone Fractures If the trauma is bad enough , it can result in broken bones. Iron, Magnesium, and Potassium Iron is an essential mineral that helps your body produce red blood cells and collagen, which in turn aids bone regeneration.

We know that other nutrients like magnesium, antioxidants, vitamin K and zinc all play a role in injury recovery. But they are not things I personally would overly focus on individually.

Having an overall good quality diet will help you get enough of them though. Nutrition can play a role in injury recovery.

Nailing your nutrition could shave some time off the recovery process and improve the odds of an effective recovery. A lot of rehab protocols involve increases in muscle size and strength in certain areas. Imagine trying to do that with a low protein intake and on low calories.

Or alternatively, if consuming excess calories, it can make returning to sport at the same level lot harder. Aidan is a Brisbane based dietitian who prides himself on staying up-to-date with evidence-based approaches to dietetic intervention.

He has long been interested in all things nutrition, particularly the effects of different dietary approaches on body composition and sports performance.

Due to this passion, he has built up an extensive knowledge base and experience in multiple areas of nutrition and is able to help clients with a variety of conditions. By having such a thorough understanding of optimal nutrition for different situations he is able to develop detailed meal plans and guidance for clients that can contribute to improving the clients overall quality of life and performance.

He offers services both in-person and online. Calories This section will likely be the largest section in this post, so it will be split into sub-headings.

Avoid the Temptation to Cut Calories Dramatically The first temptation a lot of athletes have when they get injured is to cut calories significantly. Fuel the Rehab Process Another aspect to consider is that you will likely be undertaking a rehab protocol that involves you aiming to get stronger and build muscle in certain areas.

Challenges With Managing Calorie Intake There are a few challenges with managing your calorie intake while injured. This is another reason why people have a temptation to dramatically cut calories. Protein Protein helps with many aspects of injury recovery It can help reduce the amount of muscle lost in the early stages.

It can help speed up the increase in muscle and strength which can be beneficial in a rehab process. It can help with managing appetite if that is an issue, and you are struggling with accidentally overconsuming calories.

Immobilisation vs Non-Immobilisation When an athlete who trains hard takes a break from training, it typically takes ~3 weeks before muscle loss is measurable. One of these steps is high protein intake.

This is quite a high intake. From another perspective though, I view this as a huge opportunity. Practical Challenges with Protein Intake While Injured There are two main challenges that can occur with trying to achieve that target.

What if your appetite has declined due to being less active? If you have a smaller calorie budget due to being less active, it is hard to get towards the upper end of the target without overshooting your calorie needs.

Creatine Creatine helps with building muscle and strength. Best case scenario, it helps. Worst case scenario it does not really do much. Dosage: g fish oil per day, if choosing to take it. Collagen or Gelatin Supplementation Collagen and gelatin supplementation have emerging research indicating they can help with recovery from musculoskeletal injuries.

Some common criticisms of collagen supplements are: The collagen peptides break down into amino acids. How is this different to consuming more protein in general?

A large percentage of the body is made up of collagen. How do we know it goes to where we want it to go? The evidence is mixed. A Look at the Evidence In terms of the evidence, while the evidence is mixed, all the research fitting the following criteria has shown positive outcomes: 15g or more of collagen protein Timed before rehab sessions Alongside vitamin C There also is not a lot of quality research on the topic.

MRI of Patellar Tendinopathy Case Study Over an month Period. You can see the area behind the patella at the top is damaged in the first image, but not the last. Calcium and Vitamin D Calcium and vitamin D supplementation can be helpful if there is anything bone related.

At a minimum, it is important to avoid low calcium and vitamin D. Beyond just fractures though, vitamin D might help further. Dosage and How to Take: Obviously, you could aim for a food-first approach.

Overall Healthy Diet Having an overall healthy diet makes sense during injury recovery. Practical Summary Nutrition can play a role in injury recovery. Poor nutrition could dramatically slow down recovery though, particularly for longer rehabs.

As a quick summary, some key areas to investigate addressing are: Appropriate calorie intake. This might involve periodising it over the course of the recovery process.

Aiming for 1. Consume a good quality overall diet to cover all the little details that matter and can help with recovery a bit.

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