This is where casts, braces and other immobilization methods are key. * Keeping a fracture immobile during the first two stages is crucial for allowing these delicate new blood vessels to grow and deliver the materials our body needs to repair bone. Load bearing and other rehabilitative exercises come into play as we slowly retrain range of motion and strength. This is the stage where you can gradually (and I mean GRADUALLY) return to moving the fractured part normally. Remodeling Stage: The callus that was originally made of cartilage starts to turn into bone (a process called ossification) and other small parts of the bone are broken down and rebuilt. This stage ends when there is no more movement of the bone pieces on clinical examination, there is no pain at the site, and the body part can be used without pain. New blood vessels grow* like little roots all over the area and cartilage starts to form across the fracture lines.
Reparative Stage: Hard tissue called a “callus” starts developing around the fracture.
The body starts breaking down a small amount of bone around the lines of the break. Blood rushes to the injured area and causes swelling that protects the tissues from moving and causing further damage. Inflammatory Stage: This begins almost immediately with a fracture. Here’s a condensed version of what happens during each of these stages (1): Since I wanted to get back to throwing heavy weights around ASAP, treating myself using myself with acupuncture and herbal medicine seemed like the obvious thing to do.īones heal in overlapping stages called the inflammatory, reparative, and remodeling stages (WM). From the perspective of powerlifting (my main form of physical activity), a healthy big toe is key to distributing weight evenly through the foot for maximum force transfer and balance. Poor big toe function can lead to a number of foot or ankle problems walking can become uneven or choppy and our risk of falling increases.
My personal brand however is going above and beyond, so of course when I broke my big toe, I REALLY broke it.īreaking a big toe is also more of an event than other toes because of it’s importance for balance and how we distribute weight through our feet as we walk. I experienced my very first bone break last November when I dropped a weight on my left big toe because I really wanted to end 2021 with a bang, y’know? Broken bones are a significant injury, but most of the time a broken toe isn’t too much of a problem our smaller toes can be braced so they don’t move around and, with some stiff shoes and a few activity modifications, will often heal without issue. In places where it might be ambiguous which approach I’m talking about, I use the abbreviations. Note: In this article I talk about a mix of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) treatments and Western Medicine (WM) treatments for broken bones. The English research (there is a lot more in Chinese/Korean) about acupuncture/TCM for fractures is poor due to many factors but practitioners anecdotally report that regular treatments during recovery reduces healing time. Some studies indicate that acupuncture promotes a faster healing of the bones, greater improvements in range of motion, and earlier reductions in swelling and pain.
These treatments are geared toward the principles of: relieve swelling, decreasing pain, improving circulation, and promoting the regeneration of bone and soft tissue. I broke my big toe recently, check out the case report I wrote about how I treated it with TCM herbal medicine and acupuncture here.Īcupuncture and TCM herbal medicine treatment can start almost immediately after breaking a bone, with a few caveats.
0 kommentar(er)
