If you’re currently in a wheelchair or cast due to broken bones there are some things you can do to help heal faster. In the meantime, Stellar Transportation is here for all of your non-emergency medical transportation needs!

The adult human body has a total of 206 bones, all of which are much stronger than we give them credit for. Still, when hit with just the right amount of force, our bones can fracture, break and even snap clean in half. When bones do break they take a long time to heal. Fusing bones back together again is a pretty detailed process for the body.

Healing time varies depending how badly a bone is broken and what bone in the body is injured. X-Rays are able to identify how badly a bone is broken and what type of treatment options and recovery time you are looking at. 

A minor bone fracture can heal in as little as 6 weeks, and larger breaks tend to take closer to 3 or 4 months. Even after the healing process is complete a previously broken bone could still require months or even years of physical therapy to restore normal range of motion. Children’s bones heal much faster than adults, with elderly populations taking the longest to heal from a broken bone.

The following things will slow down healing of broken bones:

  • Moving broken bones or lifting weight too soon.
  • Smoking
  • Pre-existing medical conditions such as vascular disease or diabetes.
  • Certain medications, namely immunosuppressant medications. 
  • Old age
  • Poor nutrition in daily diet
  • Not getting enough calcium or vitamin D
  • Complicated or severe fractures
  • Secondary infections

Thankfully, there are some things you can do to help speed up the process and return to life as usual—you know, with all 206 of your bones in working order.

Eat Up!

Make sure you eat plenty of calories because your body is burning through energy to repair broken bones. Talk to your doctor about the right amount of calories you should consume while you are healing and stick to that. You definitely don’t want to start loosing weight, although that is common after a debilitating injury.

It’s just as important to eat the right things, like plenty of protein. Your bones are made out of “living” protein, and so if your body does not have enough new protein coming in it will delay the healing process.

Also, make sure to eat plenty of calcium, lysine and foods packed with antioxidants. Antioxidants help reduce inflammation. Inflammation slows down recovery time and may remain around an injury for days, weeks or months after it’s occurred. In order for true healing to start this inflammation needs to reduce down.

Take Extra Vitamins & Minerals

It’s not always easy to get every last thing your body needs through diet alone. Even if you eat an incredibly healthy diet your body may still need more. The best mineral supplements to take include calcium, zinc, magnesium, copper, silicon and phosphorus.

The most important vitamin supplements to take include vitamin K, B6, C and D.

All of these vitamins and minerals are important to overall healing, but taking them in excess is not going to help any. Taking the recommended doses should be good enough.

Exercise What You Can

The body needs exercise of some sort in order to increase blood flow and thus promote faster healing. Make sure to do exercises that are safe and not going to further harm your broken bones. It’s so important that you do not move the broken limb at all, during exercise or any other time. Complete immobilization of the bone is necessary for healing to happen.

Even if you are confined to a wheelchair, there are exercises you can do to maintain strength and heal faster. Learn some of the best wheelchair exercises for seniors here: https://www.stellartransport.com/best-wheelchair-exercises-for-seniors/

Quit Smoking

If you smoke, try quitting at least long enough for your bones to heal. There is strong evidence showing that injuries take a lot longer to heal when someone smokes on a regular basis. Not only that, but smokers are more likely to develop nonunion, which is when a bone simply does not heal. Smoking alters blood flow to your bones, and as a result bones are deprived of vital nutrients and cells needed to heal.

Augmenting Fracture Healing

Some doctors may recommend a type of external device that can be used to help speed up healing.  Most of these devices have never been proven to actually help, but some people still swear by them. In some cases they may be worth looking into. Examples of augmenting fracture-healing devices include electrical stimulation, ultrasound treatment and magnets.

See Your Doctor As Needed & Carefully Follow Guidelines

See your doctor as needed to ensure you are on the right track for recovery. Closely follow any and all instructions your doctor provides regarding healing.

If your broken bones prevent you from being able to drive, Stellar Transportation provides state of the art non-emergency medical transportation to get you to and from your doctor appointments in comfort and style.

Poor practices during transportation of injured patients can easily lead to further injury. Don’t take the risk when enlisting a ride from a non-emergency medical transportation service. We guarantee to get you from point A to point B using every precaution possible to keep you safe and comfortable.

Contact us today for a free quote on local transportation and long distance transportation.