If you break a bone in your body and need to have your foot in a cast or your arm in a sling for an extended period, you may assume that time alone will be the driving force behind your recovery. While it will take some time for your fracture site to heal, waiting isn’t the only thing you’ll be doing to help the area heal. Physical therapy can actually help to speed up recovery by providing the right type of environment for healing to take place. In today’s blog, we explore how physical therapy can be helpful in the wake of a bone fracture.
How PT Can Improve Fracture Site Healing
Physical therapy is oftentimes viewed as a treatment that can be beneficial for problems with joints or soft tissues, but it also plays a prominent role in fracture site healing. Your physical therapist will pursue techniques that lay the foundation for healing to take place, and that can certainly help to speed up your recovery. Here’s a look at some of the ways your physical therapist can help you recover following a bone fracture.
- Swelling And Inflammation Control – When your body suffers acute trauma that results in a bone fracture, an inflammatory response is triggered inside the body. Chemicals are released from damaged cells at the injury site, and white blood cells soon flood the area, leading to swelling and inflammation in an area. When there is too much swelling and inflammation, fluid can’t move as easily in and out of an area, and this can actually delay the healing process. Lymphatic drainage exercises can work to move fluid out of specific areas so that healthy blood can move more easily in and out of the area, which is essential for the healing process.
- Regaining Strength – Odds are it’s going to take weeks or months for the fracture to heal sufficiently, and if you aren’t allowed to use your arm or leg normally as healing progresses, the muscles and soft tissues in the area can atrophy or weaken as a result of limited use. Targeted strength training exercises can ensure that these tissues are strengthened so that they aren’t at risk for an injury once your cast or sling is removed.
- Flexibility – There’s also an increased likelihood that the extended period of limited stress and movement on a specific area of your body will take a toll on your flexibility. Restoring normal range of motion is crucial following certain fractures, like a broken ankle or a fractured collarbone. Our team of physical therapists will gradually help increase flexibility around the affected bone so that you can get back to doing all the activities you love once the bone has healed.
- Pain Management – You will likely have some discomfort or some pain in the area of the fracture, especially in the immediate aftermath of the injury or surgery. Our team of physical therapists can help show you how to manage pain so that your rehab can be a bit more comfortable. Gentle exercise, medication management tips, manual therapy and hot/cold therapy can all assist in pain management as bone healing runs its course.
- Diet – Finally, what you put in your body can ensure that your body has access to critical nutrients that aid in fracture site healing. Our team of physical therapists can explain how tweaks to your diet can pave the way for great bone healing. An uptick in calcium, Vitamin D, Vitamin K, magnesium and iron intake can prove helpful when working to recover from a bone fracture, and your PT can help you understand how to get more of these in your diet.
For help overcoming a bone fracture or another type of injury, consider reaching out to the team at OrthoRehab Specialists today at (612) 339-2041.
PT of Costa Rican National Soccer Team for 2007 World Cup in Victoria, CAN. Clinical Instructor for University of Minnesota Doctor of Physical Therapy Affiliations
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