Tips for Chronic Injuries

Injuries can slow us down, making even activities of daily life more difficult and painful. If you have ever gone through a period of multiple injuries or just had a few aches and pains that simply wouldn’t go away, you know how challenging it can be. With every injury comes a certain level of disability or lack of function in usual capacity. Here are some tips when dealing with challenging periods of chronic or multiple injuries.

1. Follow updated policies on icing.

Icing will slow down your healing. This is why it is not recommended any more for injuries. Inflammation after an injury is your body’s way of repairing, rebuilding, and cleaning up after damage to tissue. Don’t confuse systemic inflammation from allergies, or food sensitivities as the same as the inflammation that comes with an injury. Be careful not to use too much heat on torn muscle tissue either (as it can lead to myositis ossificans if used too much). 

2. Keep up your usual plans as much as possible.

Putting your entire life on hold while healing can feel too disruptive to normal healthy living habits. By keeping up your usual plans your life will feel less interrupted and the transition into and out of injury status will feel less significant. Keep doing all the things you love within reason so that your injury doesn’t take over your life.

3. Fuel your body for recovery.

What does your body use to heal? Vitamin C? Protein? Water? Carbs? I am not a dietician or naturopath, but if you want your body to run as well as repair and heal, then it will need the fuel and tissue building blocks necessary. Our body is made up mostly of protein and water, so make sure you are getting both of these throughout the day. If you are suspecting that you have delayed wound healing times, seek out care from a licensed healthcare practitioner who has this in their scope of practice. A few supplements and diet alterations can go a long way in shortening your healing time.

4. Stay social.

When I broke my foot, I felt very isolated. I wasn’t working in the same capacity, neither was I socializing in the same capacity. An injury is challenging enough on mental health, you don’t want to remove any positive factors that contribute to your overall mental well being. Instead, maintain those supportive, loving social connections throughout your healing process. 

5. Maintain physical health in other areas of your body.

If your ankle is injured, can you still do an upper body workout? Can you modify what you are doing in the gym to keep up some sort of schedule? A break is always a great idea, but for how long? The body is efficient and if we are not using a muscle your body will reduce the size. You can see how halting all physical activity during an injury might make you more susceptible to injury when you return. By maintaining some level of activity while healing you lose less muscle mass and don’t need such a graded re-entry into your previous training schedule.

6. Seek out support.

There is no medal for going through an injury alone. It doesn’t make you more tough. Instead, use your support system in whatever ways you are able to so that you can make your healing timeline shorter and less exhausting. Just make sure you pay it forward for when your loved ones are going through their own injuries. 

7. Focus on getting quality, restorative sleep.

To improve your sleep, try to reduce light stimulation (bright lights, or screens) before going to bed. Reduce drinking liquids before bed as well. Try to set your room up (dark, silent, comfortable in temperature and bedding) so that you get the most restorative sleep possible. 

8. Remove activity that aggravates, not challenges.

When injured, you typically want to load the tissue as soon as possible. This will shorten your healing timeline to get you back to your pre-injury state. Remove any activity that your gut is telling you is too painful or challenging, but keep as much as you can in (under guidance from a healthcare professional of course). Don’t think of an injury as a complete break from activity, but instead get clever about ways of ensuring your life goes on with as little interruption as possible.

9. Wear supportive clothing.

If you are dealing with a lower limb injury, are your shoes the best option for you? You might not have the budget right now, but when you can, think about replacing certain items of clothing with more supportive and comfortable options. Getting a shoe like a Hoka or a New Balance with a stiff shank or roll bar helps take the load off your feet while you are walking around at work for example. 

10. Education is key.

Understanding your body is power. Knowing the anatomy that you injured, what this normally does, and how your body is now altered helps you understand more about the why’s of your treatment plan and set or rehab exercises. Not only does this improve buy-in and compliance, but it empowers you to move through the world without being scared of your pain or worried that you could make it worse somehow. Getting information and tips like this from someone like your Chiropractor will help so much more out of the clinic. I always give patients a lot of info, tools, and exercises to do between appointments so they are not dependent on my manual skills.

Whether you are dealing with chronic injuries, or multiple injuries, or maybe just your first injury, it is like anything else in life. If you set yourself up for success you will be less frustrated and more efficient. This aligns with healing and physical injuries. Follow the above set of examples in small, daily ways helps the wins add up.