Broken bones are more often than not associated with old ladies.

Granted, old bones are decidedly more vulnerable, but they are not the only bones that can find themselves in pieces.

Every year, thousands of youngish bones, find themselves in pieces following a vicious blow. The source of the trauma may be a bully, a bus or an imprudent backflip i.e. you did something “stupid”.

Putting the bones back together

Bones that are broken, need a lot of help and support to put themselves back together.

Plaster casts and plates are used to provide the necessary structural support. But bone reconstruction, depends on a steady supply of all the necessary building blocks too.

Bone building supplements are seldom prescribed to the so called young and healthy. It is assumed, young bones automatically have access to these bone building ingredients.

But………. maybe they don’t.

Vitamin D in short supply

Indoor living, coupled with deliberate sun avoidance, has left lots of people running low on vitamin D.

Orthopaedic trauma patients, are no exception.

This was the finding of researchers from the University of Missouri, when they ran the numbers on the patients who had checked into the Level 1 trauma centre between 1 January 2009 and 30 Sept 2010. Of the 1830 adults, 39 % had levels below 20 ng/mL, making them “deficient” and 38.4 % had levels below 40 ng/mL, making them “insufficient”.

That is a wopping 77 % of patients potentially missing a vital bone ingredient.

Since Vitamin D is a major player in the bone business – these lower levels, could impact on recovery. Either dragging out the restoration process, extending the time to full recovery or worse still, preventing a full recovery i.e. the bone fracture fails to heal. It happens !

Add a vitamin D splint

If one or more of your bones has been fractured….. don’t just rely on the plaster cast to provide physical support.

Give your bone a biochemical splint – get those vitamin D levels tested and ensure your levels are in the normal range. Supplement or sun tan, whilst you convalesce.

P.S. To provide your bones with the other ingredients needed to get the bone building job done quick quick – include a couple of prunes and a glass or two of milk in your daily routine.

Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind better bones ?

Subcribe to E-spoons, to get e-mail updates once a month to learn how to keep your body chemistry balanced so you peform at your best. 

NOTE : Privacy & spam policy. Spoonful of Science will not rent, trade or sell the e-mail list to anyone. You can unsubscribe at any time by following the unsubscribe link.

Know someone who will find this post useful ? Share it on facebook, linkedin, twitter

Further reading

Bee kisses beat fancy creams at healing nasty wounds	Are your stem cells choosing to be fat cells rather than bone cells ?	The sunshine vitamin moonlights as a comedian

The 7 Big Spoons™…. are master switches that turn health on.

Balance Eicosanoids	Rein in insulin	Dial down stress	Sleep !	Increase Vit D	Culivate microflora	Think champion

Hire Dr Sandy from a Spoonful of Science to be the keynote speaker at your next event.

Did you learn something new or do you have a different perspective ? I’d love to hear from you so post me a comment below