Three Simple Tips for Getting Better Spinal Injury Recoveries

Injury recovery, especially in the spinal ligament injury market is significant because 50% of the patients that received this type of injury will not fully recover, and 30% of them will have a significant amount of problems associated with that type of an injury.

These injuries are not the sexiest injuries in the market, but they are the most common injuries in the market. They cost the most amount of money. They cause the largest amount of personal trauma and trials and tribulations simply because so many people with these types of injuries result in a chronic outcome.  As a matter of fact, if we have 4 million auto accidents or auto injuries in this country, 2 million people every year are going to become chronic as a result of those injuries.

When you are dealing with patients, you want to get the best results.  I’m not going to get into specifics of adjusting for chiropractors or type of modality you’re going to use or anything similar. I’m going to start with some very, very general tips for you. In a Smart Injury Doctor’s Program, we call these Smart Injury Recommendations and they’re just some very, very general recommendations.

We know that when a person has a spinal ligament injury, they need to take this injury quite seriously. Your approach to that patient, your level of professionalism, your level of certainty, your level of handling the patient, will guide their response to their injury and compliance in their care.

Spinal ligament injury conditions can cause them problems. It is a fairly permanent condition. It can cause an unstable segment or segments for a long time to come. The patient needs to take their initial treatment very seriously because that’s where you’re going to try to reduce down their risks for long term residual complaints and get them a great, great result.

One of the first things that you should be discuss is dehydration. When your body is not receiving the amount of fluids and the amount of water that it needs, it takes a toll on injury recovery. It slows it down, making recovery not as swift. Remember, water is the primary way that oxygen and nutrients get delivered directly to a spinal injury. Dehydration is one of the most common reasons why cell function becomes disrupted, no matter what. Essentially if you lack fluids, you’re going to create a delay in recovery and less optimal result of recovery.

Typically the body fluctuates from anywhere to 60% of its total weight is actually water. So how much water do you want the person to consume? About half their body weight in ounces of water every single day. They will improve their injury results if they are hydrated.  If they drink coffee, they need  to offset that cup of coffee with an extra cup of water. You want them drinking water. It’s a very general recommendation that basically hits home. Hydration.

The next Smart Injury Recommendations is proper sleep. Sleep is so misunderstood. But if we look at the course of injuries and how injuries heal successfully, they have to have healthy tissue growth. They have to repair the damaged tissue and now have healthy tissue growth. According to the National Sleep Foundation, growth and repair of tissue occurs in the third and fourth stages of sleep, which after you’ve completed about 70% of your rest, that’s when those stages happen. This means that your patient needs  to get an uninterrupted night of sleep. It’s crucial.

So what’s enough sleep? According to Mayo Clinic, the optimum sleep for adults is 7 to 9 to hours. A teenager, needs 8 to 10 hours. That’s what required in order for optimal healing to occur. Optimal healing and the repair of tissue occurs in the later stages of sleep.

The third recommendation that our doctors recommend, is they need to eat a healthy diet. You want them to consume a good non-inflammatory diet. One that is reduces inflammation. Consuming more anti-inflammatory fats. These fats are fish, salmon, sardines, olive oil mix and nuts and seeds, avocados, flaxseed oil, fish oil. Staying away from processed foods that are high in saturated fats. Vegetable oils, like corn, safflower, sunflower, soybean oils, or foods with trans fats. Those are high inflammatory foods.  Also include anything that is a leafy green vegetables, highly anti-inflammatory. Anything that’s a vegetable that’s grown above the ground is highly anti-inflammatory.

There are also some spices that are anti-inflammatory, like bromelain from pineapple, garlic, curcumin, turmeric, curry powder, cocoa, tea and berries. They provide anti-inflammatory substance and they also provide a lot of nutrients. They’re nutrient dense, and that’s what the body needs when it’s going to repair.

You don’t just recommend these three, you follow up by asking about it in your re-examinations. Especially if you have a patient that’s not progressing in a manner that you deem to be appropriate for what you normally see under your care.

It is easy to just talk to the patient about better sleep, better hydration, and better diet at least while they are going through your treatment program. If they adopt these habits, you’ve created a healthier patient. You’ve created a much healthier patient. That’s one of the things that as you as an injury provider can significantly help and influence a person to become healthier and now they can also look at long term things that keep their health such as ongoing care, supportive care in your clinic.

All of us have a spine. A spine is like the teeth, if you don’t maintain it, you’re not going to get as much mileage out of it. People should take their spinal health very seriously and you as an injury provider can seriously influence that.

Three simple recommendations.

Hydration

Enough Sleep

Anti-Inflammatory Diet

In the Smart Injury Doctors Program, we call these Smart Injury Recommendations. There’s other recommendations that you can give the patient to get better outcomes, but these are three simple things that you want to go over with the patient that will improve your injury results.

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