01 Oct Optimal Healing Begins With Nutrition
The right nutrients are needed for the body to properly heal itself from trauma. This is important whether you are an athlete or an elderly person. When your diet encompasses the appropriate blend of nutrients, bone, muscle, connective tissue and wounds heal quicker and your immunity is stronger.
One of these crucial nutrients is protein. The body uses this nutrient as its building block for many types of tissues of the body. There is evidence that shows whey protein is the best type of protein to enhance the body’s ability to generate antioxidants to protect and rejuvenate cellular tissue. It also helps facilitate the absorption of nutrients into the cells which assists in tissue healing as well.
Another important nutrient in the body’s healing process is leucine. Leucine helps to stimulate the synthesis of skeletal muscle. In other words, muscles will repair properly on their own after injury, like a torn muscle. Any tissue trauma that is incurred by surgery will heal better and faster when the patient has leucine as part of their daily supplementation.
Trauma and injury can lower the levels of a compound called glutamine in the body. Skeletal muscle is comprised of over 60% of glutamine so when there is a deficiency, healing will be impeded. Nitrogen is necessary for the healing of the body’s tissues and much of it comes from glutamine.
These amino acids as well as other key minerals and vitamins are critical for the healing process. One of the better supplements we have come across that provides targeted nutrition for injury is called MEND (www.mendinjury.com). Another is called Juven (www.juven.com), however it lacks the vitamins, minerals and anti-inflammatories in MEND, does not contain any Whey and is slightly more expensive.
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