• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • General Ortho
  • Procedures
  • Spine
  • Upper Limb
  • Lower Limb
  • Pain
  • Trauma
  • Tumors
  • Newsletter/Updates
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Bone and Spine

Orthopedic health, conditions and treatment

7 Tips for Faster Fracture Healing

By Dr Arun Pal Singh

In this article
    • How Do Fractures Occur?
    • 7 Tips for Faster Fracture Healing
      • 1. Maintain Good Nutrition
      • 2. Stop Smoking
      • 3. Do not Ignore Calcium
      •  4. Follow Your Doc
      • 5. Choose the Best Treatment for Your Profile
      • 6. Healing Augmentation
      • 7. Avoid Certain Drugs

Fractures are very common in modern life. Reported annual occurrence in the US is about 7 million. Fracture healing can take any time between 4-12 weeks depending on the bone injured and the treatment given.

Because of inconvenience and adverse effects on daily activities of living, everyone looks for ways of faster fracture healing.

But is faster fracture healing feasible?

How Do Fractures Occur?

Fractures are also called broken bones and they mean the same. Some people treated both the terms differently. They use fracture when there is a crack in the bone or broken bone when the fracture is more severe and result in two pieces.

The actual term is undisplaced fracture and displaced fracture. In the first, the broken fragments are not displaced and in the second they get separated or displaced.

[Read about different types of fracture]

When the bone is hit with a force more than it can resist, it breaks. The bone can break by a direct hit or indirect force acting on the bone

The bones with decreased strength can fracture with lesser force than normal bone. The bone strength is often decreased in osteoporosis. A disease of the bone or a metabolic disease like hyperparathyroidisms also results in weakened bones.

Common mechanisms of injury are fall from height or motor vehicle accidents.

Circumstances surrounding the occurrence of fracture might help in chalking out the best treatment options for the person.

7 Tips for Faster Fracture Healing

Bone healing depends on several factors including nature of the injury, age of the patient, nutrition, and treatment.

[Read more about factors affecting fracture healing]

A fracture in the child heals much faster. The rate of bone healing decreases with age.

The rate of healing could vary from person to person.

In any given person we cannot make the bone to heal faster.

WE CAN NOT.

However, we can take care to avoid habits or activities that increase the risk of bone not healing.

1. Maintain Good Nutrition

Healing is a repair process and requires ample amount of different nutrients like protein, calcium and other minerals.

A balanced diet that ensures adequate nutritional intake of all food groups is helpful in maintaining body levels of requisite substances.

So eat well so that your repairing bone has ample supply at disposal.

2. Stop Smoking

Smoking leads to constriction [tightening[ of blood vessels]. Therefore, it decreases the circulation and this applies to the fracture site circulation as well. Those patients who smoke take a longer average time to heal.

Smokers carry a higher risk of non-union [a condition where bone fails to unite even after the passage of a certain period and will not unite further without an intervention.

So if you smoke, you can improve your healing capacity by not smoking.

3. Do not Ignore Calcium

Calcium is an essential mineral for bone, not only one though. Along with a healthy diet, you need to eat calcium-rich foods to meet the daily recommended requirement for your age.

Often people resort to calcium supplements but that is necessary only when you have negative calcium state or vitamin D deficiency.

In contrast to popular belief, taking higher doses of calcium does not help the bone heal faster.

 4. Follow Your Doc

You need to follow your doctor’s advice after satisfying yourself that you are being treated rightly [In case of doubt, a second opinion can be sought].

Adhere to the recommendations and instruction about plaster care, walking, movements, and diet, etc.

By altering the instructions, you might be delaying/damaging your bone healing.

By removing a cast or walking on a broken bone before your doctor allows, you may be delaying your healing time.

5. Choose the Best Treatment for Your Profile

A fracture may be treated by more than one methods. Often the doctor is able to explain to you the better treatment. But sometimes, the treatment has to be chosen by the patient when both the methods are known to work equally.

You might want to choose a conservative if you can tolerate a cast for some time or surgery if you wish better control on mobilization sooner.

Choose diligently.

6. Healing Augmentation

There are many external devices available which claim to accelerate fracture healing. These include electrical stimulation, ultrasound treatment, and magnetic stimulators.

But none of them has proven and consistent results. However, they can be added as treatment adjuncts in difficult cases.

7. Avoid Certain Drugs

Nonsteroidal Anti-inflammatory drugs or NSAIDs are often prescribed for pain conditions. These are also prescribed in fractures.

In lab animal models NSAIDs have been shown to delay fracture healing. It is not known how much they could contribute to healing reduction in humans.

One of the golden rules is to reduce medication for pain as and when needed. In precarious situations with poor healing shifting to other pain drugs like opioids could be a choice.

In the case of osteoporotic fractures, the drugs that increase bone mass – calcitonin, bisphosphonates could actually accelerate the healing.

Having a fracture is painful and inconvenient. Prolonged healing period adds to the problems.

Therefore, strict to good habits and keep these tips on bone healing in mind.

Spread the Knowledge
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  
  •  

Filed Under: Health Guides

About Dr Arun Pal Singh

Arun Pal Singh is an orthopedic and trauma surgeon, founder and chief editor of this website. He works in Kanwar Bone and Spine Clinic, Dasuya, Hoshiarpur, Punjab.

This website is an effort to educate and support people and medical personnel on orthopedic issues and musculoskeletal health.

You can follow him on Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter

Primary Sidebar

Wedge Osteotomy

Osteotomy Procedure and Indications

An osteotomy is a surgical procedure where the bone is cut to change its length or alignment. Often the procedure is done in an attempt to correct an abnormality that has resulted from trauma or disease. The procedure is able to correct the following deformities. valgus/varus angulation anterior/posterior angulation internal/external rotation lengthening/shortening medial/lateral shift dorsal/ventral […]

scapulohumeral rhythm

Normal Scapulohumeral Rhythm and Its Significance

Scapulohumeral rhythm is the interplay between the scapula and the humerus during motion of the shoulder. There is a definitive pattern of interaction of scapula and humerus when contributing to the motion of the shoulder. Scapulohumeral rhythm is also called glenohumeral rhythm. Optimal function of the shoulder is reliant on the coordinated movement of the […]

talus left medial view

Talus Bone Anatomy

Talus is a tarsal bone of hindfoot. There are about 26 bones in the human foot grouped into 3 parts – tarsal bones, metatarsal bones, and phalanges. The foot itself can be divided into 3 parts Hindfoot or rearfoot Midfoot Forefoot Hindfoot is formed by talus and calcaneus, two of the seven tarsal bones. Rest […]

cast syndrome

Cast Syndrome or Superior Mesenteric Artery syndrome

Cast syndrome is also known as superior mesenteric artery syndrome. It is an uncommon complication in the treatment of orthopedic conditions. It results from obstruction of the third portion of the duodenum by superior mesenteric artery leading to high intestinal obstruction. It should be kept in mind that this obstruction can occur in absence of […]

Watson jones approach of hip

Surgical Approaches to Hip and Proximal Femur

For surgery, the hip can be approached by many surgical approaches. The choice of particular approach is based on the procedure and need for exposure of a particular part, associated shaft or acetabular fixation and the preference of the surgeon. There are numerous approaches and some are modifications of original approaches. Most of the approaches […]

normal x-ray of cervical spine

Normal Cervical Spine Xray

Normal Cervical Spine X-ray The cervical spine is the part of the spine that is present in the neck region. It is formed by first  7 vertebrae of the spine numbered from C1 to C7. The spine begins with C1 vertebra which is also called Atlas. Next vertebra is Axis. Seventh cervical vertebra or C7  is […]

Humerus bone diagram

Humerus Anatomy and Attachments

The humerus is a bone that connects the shoulder and elbow. The humerus is the largest bone in the upper limb and the only bone in the upper arm. Humerus movements participate in many days to day essential activities like throwing, lifting, writing and others which require movements of the shoulder joint. Proximally, humerus forms […]

Browse Articles

Footer

Pages

  • About
    • Policies
    • Contact Us

Featured Article

Blood Supply of Neck of Femur

Blood supply of neck of femur is derived from vessels supplying part of the femur. Blood supply of head of the femur is also contributed by these … [Read More...] about Blood Supply of Neck of Femur

Search Articles

© Copyright: BoneAndSpine.com