Americans break a lot of bones. Each year nearly 8 million broken bones are treated medically in the United States each year. That’s a lot of broken bones to heal. In fact, fractures are among the most common orthopedic problems.
As a doctor and surgeon, I was trained to “treat” broken bones. Treatment, in traditional western medicine, is pretty limited: rest, immobilization, and casting, unless surgery was needed.
Generally, we’d give the bone six to eight weeks of healing time depending on where the fracture was located, the age of the patient, and his or her overall health.
While breaking a bone is painful, many of my patients found that healing the bone was even more difficult, with frustrations rising as the person waited weeks for a bone to heal.
So the question is how can we possibly speed up the healing process?
Broken bones can heal faster with natural remedies
Here is where my work as a restorative physician can help my patients (and you) heal faster. There are proven steps you can take, starting with the most important one: use common sense!
Taking good care of your body all the time will assist rapid, effective fracture healing when needed, which is why you’ve read here so much about my prescription for a healthy immunity (which you can download for free, here). It pays dividends in many ways, including healing broken bones.
If fractures or broken bones occur due to a force impact on the body, then it makes sense that the strength of the bone is a factor as well. Just as we can speed up the healing process, we can also make bones stronger in general to minimize the damage of blunt-force impact.
Steps to heal broken bones faster
Over the years in my advanced understanding of natural medicine, I learned that a variety of things including homeopathy, herbs, and the right foods can indeed speed up this process of recovery.
But first, let’s talk about the single biggest thing that slows healing: Smoking. Smoking alters the blood flow to the bone. Blood flow delivers the necessary nutrients and cells to allow the bone to heal. So if you’re smoking, you’re delaying your healing process.
Here’s what to do to heal broken bones faster:
- Increase your Silica: Silica is one of the foundational minerals our body needs most. We commonly hear that Calcium is the most important mineral that is helpful for bone health, but actually Silica is unbeatable for it’s bone healing and bone protection. It improves bone density, bone flexibility and if you suffer with any bone degeneration diseases and conditions with labels like osteoporosis, osteopenia, age-related bone loss, or other bone density issues, Silica should be a part of your healing protocol. (It’s not just your bones that need silica. Your teeth do too, as do your joints, tendons, ligaments, and connective tissue in order to be strong and healthy).
- Eat fruits and vegetables: Food has powerful impact on healing all the bodies’ tissues.The quickest way to heal tissues of the body is to increase its vitamins and minerals that many I find in my practice are deficient in. Fruits and vegetables do this:
- Add herbs and specific foods that help to repair bone as well as other connective tissues to your diet, which includes: Oat straw, nettles, horsetail, comfrey, chives, dill, oranges, cherries, figs, dandelion greens, mustard greens, celery, romaine, parsley, sunflower sprouts, melons, broccoli, artichokes, tangerines, tomatoes and sea vegetables.
- Homeopathy: For any trauma or injury look to Arnica (30 or 200C) 3-4 times a day, right along with your healthy food changes above. After about a week from the initial injury take Symphytum (30 or 200C), another remedy that is indicated for bone healing. Note: It’s always a good idea to consult with a practitioner that is familiar with homeopathy for advice on the best treatment and how to use these remedies.
- Cold lasers: This is one of my favorite treatments for patients in my office. Lasers have been around for more than 20 years. Studies have shown that low-level lasers or cold lasers have been effective for stimulating bone healing. The reasons for this have been attributed to the general effects of LLLT (low-level laser therapy) and its ability to increase the rates of healing through mitochondrial ATP production and alteration in the cellular lipid bilayer. In the area of bone-specific research, Dr. Tony Pohl of the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia has provided a new theory that postulates that the majority of fluid transfer and exchange within a living bone is predominantly influenced by the lymphatic circulation. LLLT is well documented and known as having effects that influence the lymphatic circulation and wound healing process.
Need a consultation? Contact me to arrange an appointment via telemedicine to make sure you get the best personal and specific care.
