Create The Optimal Healing Environment
What is the first step to getting better after suffering an injury or undergoing surgery?
Paul Coviello PT, DPT, OCS Physical Therapist (Summit Physical Therapy)
By Paul Coviello PT, DPT, OCS Physical Therapist at Summit Physical Therapy
"What is the first step to getting better after suffering an injury or undergoing surgery?"
This is a complex question that has a number of pieces to the puzzle. Various doctors, surgeons, and rehab professionals may even have different approaches or recommendations that can muddy the waters. Good news for all, there are a few steps you can take that will benefit your recovery from any new injury or surgery.
So, what IS the first step? You must create the optimal healing environment. The body will heal itself under most circumstances, but there are certainly ways that the process can be slowed. There is most likely no way to truly speed up your healing process, but controlling factors that can slow healing is the closest thing we have to that proverbial magic bullet.
It is easy to get caught up with purchasing gizmos and gadgets or trying costly yet unproven medical treatments. Most of what you need to optimize your healing process is habit based. All too often, strictly medical interventions are viewed separately from holistic healthcare and often they are even viewed in competition with each other. Maybe holistic care needs to be viewed as an adjunct to optimizing proven medicine.
Here are my 5 holistic tips to assist you in creating the "Optimal Healing Environment."
Tip #1: Rest and Activity Modification
Rest and activity modification are the most easily controlled factors to optimize your healing. Laying with your legs up on the couch is probably the first picture that pops up in your head once rest is mentioned, but this is most likely only necessary in more severe injuries, or directly after surgeries. After a muscle strain (picture a hamstrings pull), couch/ bed rest is most likely not necessary, but avoiding sprinting for a period may be helpful in giving the muscle adequate time to heal structurally without any setbacks. This can be challenging for those of us who like to push through pain or have a desire to return to activity quickly. While you may have heard phrases like "no pain, no gain", or have seen examples of professional athletes playing through injuries, this is seldom the way to recover from an injury as optimally as possible. Understanding that when there is some sort of structural change in the body (strain, sprain, tear, break, fracture etc.) there is a period of unloading or rest that is required for that structure to adequately heal. That period of time will vary based on the extent of the injury, as well as the structure affected. Evaluation by a medical professional will provide you insight on the proper timeline for your specific injury based on severity and specific structure, as well as how this is affected by more individualized factors. This concept is extremely important for surgical repairs as well (ACL, Rotator Cuff, etc.) where the strength of your repair may not be as strong as your desire to do things. Despite having the willpower to push through some of these injuries, you may actually prolong the healing process, delaying your return to full capacity. Obviously, rest is not the cure-all to every and any injury, but allowing for the process to happen in full will optimize the recovery process. I often explain to patients that the fastest track to a full recovery is a slow start that allows us to hit the ground running at the exact moment it is appropriate.
Tip #2: Swelling Management
Discussing management of swelling and inflammation is a great way to piggyback off of rest. Inflammation has been made infamous these days, with various claims about how we must eliminate all inflammation and that it is the demon haunting our bodies. The real truth is that there is a certain amount of inflammation that is required to heal an injury. Inflammation is the first phase of healing, and removing it entirely will not allow for the healing process to start. The problem is when the inflammatory phase is prolonged due to improper management. To quote my mentor John Scioscia, "You can't fake swelling." If you have swelling from an injury, or activity is causing an increase in swelling, it is undeniable that your body is signaling that something is wrong. In this case, rest is most often indicated and further evaluation by a medical professional is your best move to figure out how to re-add athletics and daily activities in a manner that optimizes the process.
Tip #3: Diet Management
It is mostly a myth that you can fix injuries through diet or supplementation, so a great piece of advice is to not overcomplicate your diet while trying to recover. That does not mean to ignore your diet, but you probably do not need to make significant changes. Do make sure that you have adequate protein intake since protein is the building blocks for the body. Do not cut out carbohydrates, but do understand that you may have a decreased demand for the awesome energy source that carbohydrates provide. Make sure that you drink the right amount of water to stay hydrated. It can be easy to lose track of the basics when something shakes life up, but these basics may be part of a perfect process.
Tip #4: Sleep Management
Sleep is when our body heals best due to the fact that it is not using energy for anything but healing while you sleep. A full night of sleep, eight to ten hours, is best for all, but if you have some added time to nap, this can help out folks who have difficulty sleeping for that duration in one shot.
Tip #5: Stress Management
My final tip is probably the most difficult to perform, but may be the most powerful healing tool that we have. Managing stress levels to the best of our abilities allows our bodies to be in "healing mode" and not in "fighting mode". When you are stressed or there are "threats" to our bodies, our body kicks in our sympathetic nervous system. This is best described as our fight or flight response. I think it is important to understand that there are lesser levels of sympathetic activation than fight or flight. You can have 5% fight turned on and not be ready for a full blown battle. When our bodies are more tuned to fight or flight due to stressors or threats, the body cannot prioritize healing. It is beyond the scope of this article to take a deep dive into how this all works, but it is important to know a few tactics you can use to get into a more restful state, even when life around you is crazy and you are injured.
Deep breathing for >15 minutes
Write down 3 things that you are thankful for each day
Journaling
Thinking about the people you love in your life (meditation)
Thinking about being on the beach with the sun warming your open palms (meditation)
While these tips are no guarantee to make your healing process speed by some astronomical amount, they may be just enough to achieve your goals a bit faster. Always control the factors that you can to optimize your recovery and as always, consult a medical professional to make that process specific to you.