If the school nurse ever calls you at work, every parent freezes. Recently, one of our nurses here at Kare received a call that her son had fallen off the monkey bars at school and hurt his arm.
After some TLC from his mom and our Kare team and a brand new cast from an orthopedic specialist, her son is in good hands.
But this story hit close to home for our Kare family, so we wanted to use this experience to talk about everything that goes through your mind and all the questions that come up as you navigate an acute injury.
Let’s start with the worst case scenario. There’s an injury that is severe enough where you (or your child) needs surgery. Anytime anesthesia is involved, there is important information that you need to know.
As you prepare for a procedure, it’s important to consider all facets of your health and how they will be affected. The main concern we typically have with anesthesia is for patients with MTHFR mutations.
People with MTHFR mutations cannot detox well. When given certain medications, vitamins or supplements, there can be adverse reactions.
In many cases where anesthesia is used, things are moving quickly and there isn’t much time to do your homework on the spot. This is why it’s important to have looked into these scenarios ahead of time and have the information in a handy spot in case you ever need it.
In the case of our clinic’s nurse, she already knew that her son had a very specific MTHFR mutation. Before leaving to pick him up from the school, she was already running though the things she might have to do if an emergency surgical procedure was necessary:
- Additional B vitamins before and after the procedure.
- Focus on detoxing support with Glutathione.
- Talk with the doctors about anesthesia alternatives or simply decreasing the amount given.
Luckily, her son had a minor fracture in his forearm, so no surgery was needed. There was a significant amount of swelling, though and the little guy was in a fair amount of pain. This is where knowing which supportive supplements to use can come in very handy for regenerative medicine.
Your first goal should be to reduce as much pain and inflammation as possible. We can do this with a variety of vitamins, minerals and natural regenerative medicine options.
Traumeric from Orthomolecular is a great option for acute injury when our goal is to decrease inflammation. It’s a natural complex of the entire turmeric root that includes all three curcuminoids, turmerin protein, turmerone oil, beta-elemene, curdione, bisacurone and calebin A, making it a comprehensive inflammatory support option that provides broader benefit than isolated curcumin compounds alone.
Arnica is a popular option for pain relief (in both adults and children). Arnica is a homeopathic herb used to treat aches, pains, and bruises. An herb in the sunflower family (Asteraceae), arnica contains anti-inflammatory compounds. This is thought to relieve muscle and joint pain and heal bruising. Arnica can be applied topically to the skin as a gel. Oral forms are also available.
Next, we focused on healing the bone injury. Physical repositioning, time, rest and recovery are the only surefire ways to heal a broken bone, but there are things you can do every day to optimize your bone health and support the healing process.
By using a combination of Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, Calcium, Magnesium and Zinc our focus is to replenish and bolster the nutrients needed to build strong and healthy bone structures.
With the many sports injuries that we treat in our office, we find that Vascuzyme from Orthomolecular is an excellent addition to the healing process. Vascuzyme is a comprehensive multi-enzyme formula that helps support normal blood circulation and vessel function, and maintains normal inflammatory balance.
It also promotes recovery from exercise and physical stress by supporting the breakdown of unwanted proteins, aiding the body’s natural repair processes. For a normal recovery process, Vascuzyme has applications for a broad range of health needs.
Vascuzyme’s enzyme blend includes, protease, amylase, papain, trypsin, lipase, chymotrypsin, bromelain and peptidase enzymes, along with quercetin and rutin, two well-known flavonoids. Vascuzyme is a great healing support.
And finally, we need to ensure that your body’s immune system is supporting the healing process as well. Daily Vitamin C replenishment is critical during wound and injury healing due to its ability to support the body in creating new connective tissues.
The healing process increases the stress on our body and its metabolic needs. In the time immediately following an injury or surgery, your body will use up Vitamin C stores fast, potentially depleting them to very low levels.
Without extra vitamin C being introduced into the diet following injury, the formation of new replacement connective tissue between cells is hindered slowing down wound and injury healing.
Hopefully your family never suffers an acute injury or even a minor sprain. But if it happens, there are many ways to use our functional medicine approach and regenerative medicine to support the healing process.
By pairing effective regenerative medicine treatments and therapies (such as K-Laser therapy or photodynamic laser therapy) with conventional treatments, we’ve seen an improvement in recovery and decrease in lasting pain and issues. Contact our office for additional information or to discover how we can help you navigate acute illness or injuries with regenerative medicine.
We offer same-day appointments Monday through Friday for our Integrative Acute Care Center.
