Injuries of any kind are a huge setback, especially for those who have an active lifestyle. It can take weeks, months, or years to heal depending on the degree of the injury, so creating good habits of healing right from the start will help you feel better about getting back out there and speed up your healing process. Read below to discover some practical steps for enhancing health after an injury.
Get Sufficient Rest
One of the best things you can do for your overall health, especially after an injury, is to get lots of sleep. Resting your mind and body will help your biological systems focus more on healing, thus reducing your healing time. This is a practice you should continue even after you have healed from an injury because it is an essential part of helping your body work to its best ability.
Every person has a different requirement for how many hours of sleep they need per night, but generally, the rule of thumb is eight hours. If you are injured, you should try to incorporate more rest time than that by taking naps throughout the day or sleeping in a little later than normal while you are healing.
Seek Out Professional Help
If you have been injured by a car accident, playing sports, or any other kind of incident, then you may need professional help to have complete healing. There are many different treatment paths you can take depending on your injury. If you have any kind of damage to your neck or back, then injury chiropractic treatments can help you realign your spinal column, stretch out the muscles in your neck and back, and relieve tension in injured areas. If your injuries include issues in your limbs like broken bones or muscle tears, you may also need to go to physical therapy for a time to get back to full mobility.
Seeking out professional help does not only mean getting physical aid to heal your body; it may also mean working with a therapist to talk through the trauma of the injury and aid you in keeping your mind at ease while you work through the recovery process. A therapist can help you heal long after your physical ailments are gone.
Practice Patience
The healing process can be long depending on the type of injury you are subjected to. This can sometimes lead to days or weeks of sitting still and moving very little.
Some people think getting to sit on the sofa all day and watch TV would be a restful experience, but many people who suffer from acute injuries say that boredom kicks in after just a few days. If you get restless while you are healing from an injury, it is important to practice patience and find ways to occupy your mind.
Activities that can help you pass the time while you are laid up include playing games on your mobile device, reading books, binge-watching TV shows, playing strategic board games, and playing video games. These activities give you a task to accomplish and will help the time go by faster.
Even meditating is a great thing to do because it will help you to focus your mind and maybe even reduce pain. Being patient with your body as it heals will help enhance your mental health and help you cope with other hardships in life.
Eat Healthy Food
The fuel that you put into your body as you heal has a big impact on the healing process. In order to enhance your health after an injury, you need to eat vitamin-rich foods like fruits and vegetables, as well as lots of protein to help keep your muscles strong. As you build your strength back, you will be working hard in physical therapy sessions and retraining your body to do what it used to do, so you have to eat a lot of healthy foods in order to keep up with your hard work.
The best foods to eat to enhance your health as you heal are proteins like eggs, meat, and fish, as well as leafy greens, nuts, and seeds. One important food you should eat if you have healing wounds is salmon because it is high in Omega-3s, which are said to be good for wound healing. If you are recovering from broken bones, calcium-rich foods like milk, yogurt, and cheese are also recommended.
Drink Lots of Water
In addition to eating well, you should be consuming more water than you would normally drink. This is because your body is working extra hard to heal damaged cells. Drinking extra water while you are healing is a great habit to get into and it is something you can continue to do even after you’re healed. You will be surprised how much better you feel when you drink enough water every day.
One tip for remembering to constantly drink water is to get one of the giant water bottles that has measurements printed on the side. If you are bedbound or couchbound, then you can keep it next to you and sip on it throughout the day.
Gradually Increase Activity Again
As you begin to heal, you will have to keep your body moving as much as you can so that recovery is as quick as possible. If you have injured your leg, for example, then you should continue to do upper body exercises as much as you can, especially if you have to stay seated all day. A bit of exercise will get the blood flowing and lift your spirits. Each day, you can increase this activity, and as your leg heals, you can start to begin mobility of the limb again, as your doctor advises.
Gradually increasing activity does not mean you have to do full workouts every day to stay strong, as you do need to rest more than normal. But you can still find ways to keep your body moving so that you do not lose muscle mass as you recover. Even if it means going on walks every day and increasing the distance gradually, this will help enhance your health as you heal.
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Keeping active, eating the right things, and seeking medical aid are all important steps to take in order to heal from an injury as quickly as possible. However, a combination of the practical steps above is the key to staying healthy while in recovery. Every person is different, so test out which methods work for you and stick to them.