The human body is an incredibly resilient organism. It can be incredible to see how quickly people are able to bounce back from serious injuries. Despite our extraordinary resilience, however, nobody is invincible. If you’ve been hurt and you’re getting frustrated with your recovery, keep reading to learn more about how you can recover faster.
How Injuries Happen
As we learned from the HBO series Six Feet Under, the number of ways people can be hurt and killed is limited only by the imagination. People get hurt in ways they never would have imagined, however, there are also more predictable types of injury.
- Slipping, tripping, and falling
- Being struck by a falling object
- Accidental poisoning
- Muscle strains
- Car accidents
How long you take to recover will depend on the type of injury you have and its severity. In the most serious cases, a full recovery may never happen at all. You can click here to learn about more of the most common ways people get injured.
Steps You Can Take to Speed Your Recovery
Whether or not your injuries require hospitalization, there are a number of steps you can take to recover from your injuries faster.
Minimize Your Symptoms as Early as Possible
If you have experienced a blunt trauma or another injury that is likely to cause swelling or bruising, for example, apply ice indirectly to the injury throughout the day for ten minutes at a time. This will mitigate the bruising and swelling to a certain extent.
Understand Your Diagnosis as Best as You Can
If you need to see a doctor for your injury, make sure you understand exactly what is wrong, what impact your injury is going to have on your daily routine, and what your prognosis and timeline for recovery are. Communicate with your doctor clearly and write down any information they give you about how to speed up the healing process.
Rest and Recuperate
It can be tempting to tough out an injury so you can return to work as soon as possible, even if you aren’t physically ready. Failing to allow your body to heal properly can actually cause re-injury and further delay your path to recovery.
Be sure to follow your doctor’s advice on how long to rest, whether this means staying in bed, limiting your physical activity or exertion, or sticking to a certain diet or medication regimen.
Eat Well
Eating well is always important to living a healthy life, but even more critical when recovering from an injury. In order for your body to fully heal, it is critical that you are delivering the right nutrients to speed up the healing process.
Protein is recommended to help muscle recovery after workouts, and the same logic applies to injury healing as well. Also, one of the key vitamins to boost your body during recovery time is vitamin D, which can be found in fish oil and eggs. Usually, if you’re not getting enough sun, taking vitamin D supplements can be very advantageous.
Eating a diet high in fiber is also very good for your body while recovering from an injury. High fiber foods include brown rice, oats, and most fruits and vegetables.
Rehabilitation
Certain injuries damage parts of our bodies that are necessary to be mobile and active. For example, leg muscle tears are commonly sustained injuries in sports like track and field or football.
Oftentimes, recovering is more complicated than just resting and then jumping back into the game. Proper healing may involve a gradual rehabilitative regimen to train your body into using that muscle again. Recovery can be frustrating, but taking the time to do it right will be well worth the time and effort.
