Sports nutrition for injury healing -
When injuries do occur, nutrition can play a vital role in helping you recover quicker and more effectively! It helps to protect us and starts to repair damage. The key to combatting this nutritionally is reducing foods which contribute to inflammation and increasing foods which reduce inflammation.
Fruits, vegetables and healthy fats help to reduce inflammation. Foods high in vitamin C can be extremely helpful for injury recovery. Make sure you are eating plenty of fruits and vegetables. Zinc has many vital roles in our bodies including keeping our immune system functioning well and aiding in injury and wound repair.
You can get Zinc from foods like red meat, brown nice and lentils. Calcium keeps our bones strong and helps them to repair themselves, so eating foods which are high in calcium can be particularly useful for fractures and other bone injuries.
Foods which are high in calcium include cheese, yogurt and milk. Iron helps our bodies to produce blood cells and a protein called collagen. Collagen is essentially the glue which holds our bodies together, providing the structure for our bones, muscles, tendons and skin.
You can see why it would be vital for injury repair! Foods like red meat, eggs and fish are high in iron content. Both magnesium and potassium help to keep our nerves and muscles are working properly.
Magnesium also helps with bone formation. Foods like nuts, legumes, whole grains and seeds among others are great for magnesium and potassium consumption. A vital role of vitamin D is to help store minerals in your bones, keeping them strong and helping them recover.
This vitamin also helps your blood to absorb calcium. Fatty fish, diary products, cheese, and egg yolks are some great vitamin D sources. Make sure you do your research and consult a medical professional before adding any new supplement to your diet.
Take your time to figure out what diet is right for you! Here are some tips to help you:. Make sure you do your research to figure out what is right for your bodies requirements.
Seek professional guidance if you are unsure: you could speak to your doctor, a physiotherapist , a personal trainer or another medical professional.
If you become injured, consider how you can alter your diet to help you recover faster and get back to your usual activities.
Specific injuries may benefit from specific adjustments to your diet: do your research or ask a medical professional. Gatorade Sports Science Institute. Stefanie A Giampa, MS, Jan P. Stop Sports Injuries. Lin, P. Zinc in Wound Healing Modulation. Nutrients, 10 1 , Harvey is a Chartered Physiotherapist with an extensive background in sports injury rehabilitation and prevention.
The Importance of Nutrition for Sports Injury Prevention and Recovery. Mar 6 Written By Harvey Ubhi, MSc. How does nutrition help to prevent sports injuries?
What do you need in your diet to reduce the risk of injury? Carbohydrates and protein Carbohydrates keep your energy levels up during exercise. Calcium and vitamin D Both calcium and vitamin D help to keep your bones strong, reducing the risk of stress injuries from hard workouts.
Vitamins C and E Vitamins C and E provide antioxidants, which help to prevent damage to the cells in your body. Vitamin D: Vitamin D induces the antimicrobial peptide cathelicidin to promote healing.
Zinc: More than zinc-containing enzymes, including superoxide dismutase, are involved in wound healing. However, excess zinc supplementation can interfere with the absorption of other cations, specifically iron and copper. Therefore, supplementation should be avoided unless deficiency is present.
After suffering a musculoskeletal injury, the proper nutritional support can help the body regain optimal fuel for rehabilitation. Here are some of her top tips Delayed onset muscle soreness, or DOMS, may not be as serious of an ailment or require a long recovery like wounds or musculoskeletal injuries.
Still, this natural result of regular exercise can be both healed and prevented by proper nutrition. In one review of nutritional intervention for DOMS , researchers reviewed four nutrients that have been suggested to aide sore muscles:.
As you can tell from these recommendations, maintaining a healthy, balanced diet is not only conductive to maintaining weight and building muscle.
It is not as simple as just how many calories you are ingesting, rather quality, variety, and excellent macro- and micronutrient distribution is important.
A RDN can assist in building a plan that includes high quality foods. Hoogenboom is a professor and an associate program chair at Grand Valley State University, in the Department of Physical Therapy.
She was one of the first Board Certified Sports Clinical Specialists in West Michigan in , and has since been recertified twice by the ABPTS, most recently in She has been a Certified Athletic Trainer since She maintains a clinical practice by volunteering at the GVSU Pro Bono clinic.
Barb is a member of the American Physical Therapy Association and a member of the American Academy of Sports Physical Therapy, where she has been honored with the Academy's highest award, The Ron Peyton Award, and is also a member of the Turner A. Blackburn Sports Physical Therapy Hall of Fame. She also received the "Lifetime Excellence in Education" award from the AASPT.
She is a member of the Female Athlete Triad Coalition, and The Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine. Barb enjoys clinical research, and has authored many research and clinical commentary articles on the female athlete, nutrition, functional movement, and movement analysis.
She has contributed to 10 textbooks and 5 Home Study Courses on various musculoskeletal topics. She is the editor of the therapeutic exercise textbook entitled "Therapeutic Exercise: Techniques for Intervention" the third edition of which was released in She is also the Senior Associate Editor for The International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.
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Expert Nutrition Guidelines for Injury Recovery By: Rebecca Moore Add to Favorites. Nutrition Guidance for Wound Care While you might not view wound care as an energy-draining process, the body actually demands an increased amount of energy so the wound can heal correctly.
Macronutrients to Monitor During Wound Care Carbohydrates: In the proliferative phase of wound healing, carbohydrates stimulate insulin production, which is helpful in the anabolic processes.
Here are some of her top tips:2 Post-Injury Nutritional Tips Trauma or surgery may require up to 20 percent more calories, and crutching requires two to three times more energy than walking.
If your athlete or patient is dealing with post-op nausea, recommend bland foods like bananas, rice, applesauce and toast, as well as smaller and more frequent meals with nutrient-dense liquids like smoothies. Constipation can also occur after surgery, in which case you can recommend increasing fluid and fiber intake.
If antibiotics are prescribed, include prebiotic and probiotic-rich foods to restore the beneficial bacteria involved in digestive and immune health that antibiotics can remove. Prebiotic options include jicama, onion, garlic, asparagus, oats, wheat, barley and mushrooms. Probiotic options include yogurt, kombucha, sauerkraut, miso soup and kimchi.
Increase protein intake alongside the amino acid leucine to maintain anabolic function during the immobilization phase. Leucine rich foods include cheese, meat, fish, nuts and seeds and tempeh. For best results, consume 20 to 35 grams of leucine-rich protein every three hours during the day and before bed.
By Michelle Bogert, PT, DPT Paradise Well-maintained fat distribution Location. Many Detox think about injury recovery and injur imagine physical healkng sessions and rehabilitation routines. The Spotts of food we Top-rated pre-workout while healing can impact nuhrition recovery nurition frame, change our mood, and fuel the body for recovery. Food should be viewed as a power source like a car needing proper fuel to run at its optimal level, and so should our bodies. Good nutrition for injury recovery is essential for achieving a fod recovery. Plenty of different foods can help you recover from an injury, and these are some of the most beneficial. When you are injured, it will trigger several responses, including an overall inflammation of the body. JavaScript seems to be injyry in your browser. You Nurtition have JavaScript enabled in your nutriion to utilize nutritipn functionality of this Diabetic-friendly recipes and meal plans. Add Sports nutrition for injury healing Favorites. Spirts are what you eat - Sports nutrition for injury healing, when the healung is recovering from an injury, what nutrients does it need to be healthy again? National Nutrition Month® is a campaign created by the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, focusing on the importance of making informed food choices and developing sound eating and physical activity habits. Whether it be wound care, post-injury healing or everyday soreness from exercise, here are some evidence-based perspectives to help you guide your athletes, your patients or yourself through the landscape of nutritional choices throughout the healing process.
Sports nutrition for injury healing -
Vitamin C is needed to make a protein called collagen and for repairing tendons and ligaments and healing surgical wounds.
Zinc is a mineral found mostly in animal foods such as meat, fish, poultry, and dairy foods. Zinc is also found in whole grain breads and cereals, legumes dried beans and peas , and nuts. It is better to get zinc from foods than supplements.
High-dose zinc supplements can cause nausea and vomiting. Calcium and vitamin D are nutrients associated with healthy bones, so if you have a bone fracture or a stress fracture, make sure to get plenty of these 2 nutrients to strength your bones.
The best sources of calcium and vitamin D are low-fat dairy foods. Yogurt, a good source of calcium, is not always fortified with vitamin D, so check the nutrition label of your favorite yogurt to make sure you are getting vitamin D. Good nutrition for injury recovery is essential for achieving a speedy recovery.
Plenty of different foods can help you recover from an injury, and these are some of the most beneficial. When you are injured, it will trigger several responses, including an overall inflammation of the body.
This happens as your body releases damaged cells, which stimulates an inflammatory immune response. This is a natural process, but if your body remains in a state of inflammation, it will seriously thwart your ability to heal.
Anti-inflammatory foods are one of the essential components of an injury recovery diet. Some great foods to choose for this purpose include:. In addition to these foods, you can enjoy drinks such as green tea and cook with extra virgin olive oil for an additional dose of anti-inflammatory power.
Integrating turmeric supplements into your diet can also have an anti-inflammatory effect. Protein contains essential amino acids that are important to preventing muscle atrophy and sustaining your energy levels. Luckily, there are plenty of foods that offer an abundance of protein to help you fuel your recovery:.
Combining lean protein, fresh fruits and vegetables, complex carbohydrates, and healthy fats will properly fuel a healing body. Lean protein assists in rebuilding muscle, is more beneficial for your heart, and gives you the energy you need to heal.
First, smoothies are an optimal option for alleviating constipation and nausea that often follow surgery. Additionally, they can serve as a nutritional powerhouse, making it easy to pack the prebiotics and probiotics you may need.
Some other great smoothie ingredients for injury recovery include:. Mix in as many healthy ingredients as possible for a meal replacement to help you recover.
You must consume protein and amino acids to maintain your muscle mass and avoid atrophy. There is not a lot of research on this topic, but it looks promising. Another study on strength gains weeks after ACL surgery found that creatine significantly outperformed placebo.
It is worth highlighting that not ALL the research has shown positive outcomes. One study measuring strength after 30 days after knee surgery found that creatine did not improve outcomes. While the evidence is not overwhelmingly positive, it is enough that I think it is worth taking creatine.
Particularly because there is minimal downside to doing so. Dosage and how to take: 20g per day for 5 days, followed by 5g per day ongoing. This is a simplified protocol. If you want more details, check out our post on the topic.
There are proposed mechanisms for how omega-3s can help due to enhancing anabolic sensitivity to amino acids as well as help from an anti-inflammatory perspective. There is minimal research looking at fish oil and immobilisation. The research we do have is surprisingly promising.
An example of this involved lower limb immobilisation for 2 weeks. The fish oil group maintained significantly more muscle than the placebo group. Although the research looks promising, I would keep an open mind on this topic. I would not be surprised if more research came out showing it does not matter.
I also heard the main author of that study on a podcast say an interesting line. A nuanced approach could involve taking fish oil leading up to and post-surgery if you have a serious injury and a surgery date planned though.
Collagen and gelatin supplementation have emerging research indicating they can help with recovery from musculoskeletal injuries.
The mechanism that I propose involves the collagen peptides breaking down into amino acids, as mentioned. But either way, collagen protein has a very different amino acid profile to other protein sources.
It is a lot higher in proline, glycine, lysine and arginine than most other protein sources. We have evidence that these amino acids peak in the blood ~ minutes after consumption.
Theoretically, we can target the injured area by getting blood flow to the area with training. Even without that, some of the research looks promising anyway. There is also evidence of an increase in collagen synthesis in the body following supplementation and a targeted exercise protocol too.
In terms of the evidence, while the evidence is mixed, all the research fitting the following criteria has shown positive outcomes:. There also is not a lot of quality research on the topic.
At the moment, my interpretation of the research is that it helps. But I am watching the space closely to see if anything comes along to change my mind.
One of the most promising studies, in particular, involved a patellar tendinopathy case study. The MRI footage showed complete healing of the patellar tendon, which is exceptionally rare. Often with tendinopathy that severe, MRI footage still shows a damaged area long after the pain has gone. Dosage and How to Take: g of collagen or gelatin, minutes prior to training.
If you have not consumed any vitamin C for the day, it makes sense to add that too. Vitamin C is required for collagen synthesis. At a population level, supplementing those things, without further context e. dietary intake and blood levels leads to increased bone mineral density.
Supplementing with calcium and vitamin D has evidence of improving fracture recovery. It is not a large benefit, but it is worth being aware of. Adding some nuance, those who have low calcium intakes or low blood vitamin D levels would benefit significantly more from this.
A study identified that 3 months post ACL surgery, low vitamin D status was linked with lower levels of strength in comparison to those with higher vitamin D. Vitamin D can also be relevant from an inflammation standpoint.
Obviously, you could aim for a food-first approach. This would involve getting ~mg of calcium per day through food and minutes of sunlight per day. Some people might need a bit more sun than that if they have darker skin. From a supplemental perspective, if taking both, a supplement containing around mg calcium and IU vitamin D is often the gold standard.
Since calcium absorption is a bit limited in a single sitting, it is even more beneficial to split the dosage and have at both morning and night.
If just supplementing vitamin D, IU is the most commonly recommended dosage. But if you have low blood levels, you could go a bit higher than that and address it quicker. I sometimes recommend as high as 10,IU per day for short periods of time, for those who are deficient. We know that other nutrients like magnesium, antioxidants, vitamin K and zinc all play a role in injury recovery.
When it Healling to anti-viral body wash from an injury, nutrition is ibjury useful Sporfs that is often overlooked. Prioritizing nutrition for healing nutritikn assist in maintaining lean hezling and reducing inflammation. Sporhs do this, athletes must Sports nutrition for injury healing adequate energy and nutrient intake to promote muscle preservation and healing. This article will discuss how to calculate energy needs when injured, macronutrient needs, and nutritional strategies for optimal healing. These recommendations are based on the latest research published in the Journal of Athletic Training. It is important to note that these are general guidelines, and I always recommend working with a sports dietitian to determine the best individualized approach for you. An athlete's metabolic rate will increase to support the injury-healing process.
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