The Connection Between Injuries and Nutrition
We've all suffered an injury at one point or another, and healing begins immediately after the injury is sustained. You see obvious signs, such as swelling, redness and pain and may experience limited range of motion or loss of function. Depending on your injury, it may last anywhere from a few days to a few months or even years. As you heal, nutrition plays a crucial role.
Your food choices can help you preserve muscle, prevent excess body fat while you heal and keep inflammation down. When you're injured, your energy needs may increase, and your nutrition the first week following your injury is key to prevent excess loss of muscle.
For example, walking on crutches requires two to three times more energy than just walking. While your instinct may be to decrease your calorie intake following an injury like this, if you restrict calories too much, your recovery may actually be slower due to negative metabolic consequences that can interfere with wound healing and promote muscle loss. If you consume too many calories, however, you can experience a decrease in insulin sensitivity. It's important to have a balance. Cutting out things like sugar and alcohol are beneficial, but focus on consuming healthy foods. Tracking calorie intake via an app may be helpful to ensure optimal recovery and prevent deficiencies.
If your injury causes you to be immobile while you heal, you'll experience an increase in protein breakdown. A young adult can see a 2 percent loss of lean muscle mass over 28 days of inactivity. Seniors will lose three times that amount of muscle mass, in one-third of the time.
Your muscles are less sensitive to insulin and the response to amino acids, or the building blocks of protein, when you're immobile or inactivity. This means that you'll need more protein, and more of an essential amino acid called leucine. While recovering from an injury, aim for 2.5 grams of leucine per day and 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal, with three to four meals a day. Leucine is found in whey protein isolate, soy protein isolate, chicken breast, tuna, steak, skim milk and eggs.
To help your bones heal, you also want to eat foods with calcium, vitamin D, vitamin K and vitamin C. Increasing your omega-3 intake can reduce your risk of fractures and blunt inflammation.
Where should you start? If you've had an injury, start by cutting out inflammatory things like sugar and alcohol. Increase your vegetable and fruit intake, eat good sources of protein and read your food labels. Remember your goals, and what you want to get back to doing following your injury.
Teri Tidwell, P.T., is a physical therapist at MyMichigan Medical Center Midland. She has a special interest in orthopedics, manual therapy, sports medicine and neurorehabilitation.
