Recovery and nutrition
Nutrition is being proven to have a profound effect as a complementary treatment to physiotherapy and rehabilitation.
Here’s some information from two physiotherapist’s who are using the “missing link” of nutrition to complement their therapies;
"Diet and nutrition has been found to play a vital role in optimal rehabilitation. Incorporating nutrition advice into clinical practice has become a cornerstone for a minority of practitioners whom favor a broader approach. 63 per cent of Australians are classified as being overweight according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 25 per cent being children. Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, some cancers and some musculoskeletal conditions are possible outcomes of having excess weight. “Having an appreciation of the importance of nutrition is really important for all of us; in the same way that nutritionists or naturopaths or doctors should understand that there’s more to exercise than going to the gym, and that physiotherapists have specialised understanding of how the body works.” - Verona Chadwick.
APA Musculoskeletal Physiotherapist Practitioner Verona Chadwick undertook postgraduate study in nutritional medicine, which she says enables her, “to look at things on a more cellular level, on what needs to repair, including the effects of stress and sugar overload”.
“Basically, cells in the body need a certain number of nutrients to heal – protein, for instance, is crucial for connective tissue and for muscle and bone healing,” Verona explains. “Firstly, you need an adequate balance of protein, and essential vitamins, minerals and cofactors; for example, you need zinc and B6 to metabolise protein. Secondly you need to be able to digest that, which becomes harder as we age because stomach acid becomes depleted and we lose body mass. When you add injury to that, if people are not able to synthesise proteins properly then they have difficulty with (what needs to be repaired).” Verona is passionate about nutrition and spreading the knowledge throughout the physiotherapy profession. “People spend a decent amount of time with us – half an hour to an hour, one (on) one – so, often we can identify that patients are stressed or need more holistic lifestyle advice. There is so much more that we can do to help people, on top of manual therapy and giving exercises.” – Physiotherapy ‘In Motion’, April 2017 ed. Australian Physiotherapy Association.
Something to take away from this, your nutrition plays a vital role in your healing.
Time to start loving your body from the inside out .