/ By St. William's Living Center / Healthy Living • Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy/ 0 Comments

Heal Broken Bones Faster with These Tips

A broken bone, no matter where it is in your body, can take away your mobility in the blink of an eye. 

Fast healing is essential to get you back on your feet. This is especially important if you suffer from a bone disease like osteoporosis, where broken bones can become a common occurrence. 

Keep reading for some of our top tips to help heal broken bones faster. 

Balance Your Diet

Healing is a restorative process that your body is pretty good at. But your body can’t heal without the right building blocks. That’s why a properly balanced diet is essential to heal broken bones faster. 

Bones are made mostly from a protein called collagen. Your body needs plenty of protein to build new collagen for bone healing. Eat lots of protein-rich foods like lean meats, low-fat dairy products, beans, nuts, and fortified cereals.

Leafy green vegetables like collard greens, spinach, broccoli, and kale are high in calcium, another important part of bone repair. Eggs and whole grains, like brown rice and oatmeal, provide iron, another ingredient for making collagen. Citrus fruits, potatoes, and peppers have high levels of vitamin C, another necessary vitamin used to make collagen.  

Talk to your doctor before beginning any dietary supplement program. You should be able to get the vitamins and minerals you need from your diet. But if your doctor suggests supplements, follow their advice. 

Avoid Bad Habits

We’ve talked about the things you should put into your body when you’re healing from a broken bone, now let’s discuss the things you shouldn’t put in your body. 

You may enjoy a cocktail or two from time to time, but it’s best to avoid alcohol completely when you’re healing. Alcohol interacts with the body’s ability to build new bone and bone grown with alcohol in the body is weaker than bone grown without alcohol present. Alcohol also impairs your judgment and makes you unsteady on your feet, increasing the risk you’ll break the bone again.

Smoking is also a no-no. It affects how blood flows through the body and has been shown to severely hinder your body’s ability to heal. 

Avoid processed food while you’re nursing a broken bone. Processed foods often lack many vitamins and minerals. This leads to lots of empty calories that don’t contribute to those building blocks we discussed in the last section. 

Processed foods are also more likely to contain salt. While some salt is essential for good health, too much salt can cause your body to expel calcium in urine rather than absorbing it. Read food labels and limit salt intake to six grams per day max.  

Physical Therapy to Heal Broken Bones Faster

Your doctor will likely prescribe a treatment plan to help get you back on your feet. Often, that plan involves physical therapy. 

A trained physical therapist knows how to get you moving without risking further injury. They specialize in working on the soft tissue surrounding the fracture site. This brings fresh blood and oxygen to the bone, healing it quicker. 

Physical therapy builds strength after the limited mobility which often follows immediately after a fracture. Your therapist works with you on exercises to strengthen the muscles around the fracture site. They’ll also work on improving your range of motion and strengthening the surrounding joints. 

This type of physical therapy treatment helps heal broken bones faster and helps prevent future broken bones by improving your strength, flexibility, and balance. 
If you’ve recently had some bad luck in the broken bone department, talk to your doctor about a physical therapy treatment plan. At St. William’s, our licensed therapists are here to support you throughout the healing process. Call us today for more information!

/ By St. William's Living Center / Physical, Occupational, and Speech Therapy/ 0 Comments

Physical Therapy for Back Pain: What to Expect

It’s intense, it happens to 80% of us at some point in our lives, and it’ll knock you right off your feet.  

Back pain is one of the most common medical problems and it can also be one of the most difficult pains to get rid of. Many people end up on the operating table in search of relief from acute back pain.

Fortunately, back surgery isn’t the only option. Physical therapy for back pain is an effective and less invasive alternative. 

Here’s what you can expect when you opt for physical therapy to help with back pain.

Why Physical Therapy for Back Pain is a Good Idea

The muscles of the back, along with the muscles of the side body and abdomen, make up your body’s core. This large group of muscles is responsible for almost all movement in some way or another. Back pain can cause even the most mundane tasks to become excruciating. 

Suffering through back pain without seeking treatment means you won’t be able to exercise effectively. Bending and reaching may be out of the question. And you may even find it painful to stand, sit, or lay down. Your quality of life will suffer as a result.

Physical therapy for back pain is a non-invasive alternative. Surgery is expensive and it involves days or even weeks of downtime. While you’re recovering, you’ll lose range-of-motion and muscle mass which makes it even harder to get back on your feet. A physical therapy treatment plan can save you time and money while reducing or eliminating the need for powerful pain medication.

What to Expect at Your Appointment

During your first appointment, your therapist will evaluate your situation by asking you questions. Be prepared to answer questions about how long you’ve suffered, the level of pain you feel, and how the back pain started. 

Next, the therapist will do some limited movement exercises to gauge how well you can move. This often involves range-of-motion and strength measurement exercises. They may take a hands-on approach and feel your back for tight muscles and sore spots. Wear comfortable clothes that allow you to move easily and give the therapist easy access to your back. 

After the therapist evaluates you, they’ll come up with a personalized therapy plan. This plan will address your current pain and work on building strength and flexibility to prevent future pain. 

Your treatment plan may include massage or ultrasound therapy to ease tension in tight muscles and reduce inflammation. They may work on stretching exercises to push, pull, or twist the joints in the back. And they’ll likely prescribe strengthening exercises that target the most painful areas of the back. 

Prevent Future Back Pain with Physical Therapy

The final phase of your physical therapy treatment plan will involve preventing future injuries. Once your pain is under control, your therapist will work with you on exercises targeted to strengthen the muscles of the core. 

They’ll give you stretches to do at home to keep the muscles of the back from tightening. Plus, they’ll offer you tips on how to improve posture and exercise on a regular basis. 
Talk to your doctor about physical therapy for back pain. And give us a call at St. William’s Living Center! Our physical therapy room is spacious and state-of-the-art and we’d love the opportunity to work with you on relieving your back pain for good.