Collagen Is Your Ally In Injury Recovery

Experiencing and recovering from injury is no fun. All of a sudden, you have to take it slow, take a step back, and really focus on optimizing your recovery. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing as it’s good for everyone to slow down every once in a while, but if slowing down is accompanied by post-injury discomfort or pain, it can be more of a negative than a positive experience.

With any injury, you quickly realize how frequently you use that part of your body when you suddenly can’t use it. Consider a back injury – you don’t realize day in and day out how hard your body works until it’s suddenly injured or painful to do your regular things. And while there’s always the option of utilizing pain medication to remove pain from the recovery equation, pain meds do little in the realm of actually healing your body.

So what can you do to help optimize your recovery time and get your body functioning better than ever?

Well, we have a couple of ideas.

Take the advice of your doctor

Obviously, we’re not medical experts and we’re not going to pretend even for a second that we know better than your personal doctor. So first and foremost, it’s important to follow the recovery instructions of your doctor for a successful healing process. Whether you’re healing a skin abrasion with stitches, a broken arm, or a pulled muscle, taking the advice of your medical provider is the first step in the best chance at recovery.

Injury and inflammation

Allow us to give a little human biology 101: When the body is injured, be it a scrape, an infection, or a break, the area around the injury becomes swollen and inflammed. This inflammation is because of the surge of cells to the area responding to the call of the immune system. It’s like the body’s response team to the emergency 911 call of something gone wrong.

So, all these cells flood to the area and cause inflammation. And while it’s good that the body is appropriately responding to antibodies and/or injury initially, it’s important that the inflammation does decrease after a while. Otherwise, it could interfere with the healing process.

Dealing with inflammation via diet

Many surgeons suggest sticking to a healthy diet post-surgery to make sure your body has plenty of “good stuff” to absorb, like vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients. Plus, following an anti-inflammation diet can be incredibly beneficial for joint health in general, as low inflammation means less friction between joints, decreased joint pain, and increased mobility.

There are some important foods to steer clear of as they tend to cause inflammation, and other foods to eat a lot of to help naturally reduce inflammation.

Try to avoid:

• Processed sugar (fructose, sucrose, etc) in sweets and desserts
• Saturated fats found in cheese, pizza, red meats, most dairy products, and pasta
• Trans fats like those in fried and processed foods, frozen dishes, desserts, and anything with hydrogenated oils on the ingredients label
• Refined carbohydrates like those in cereals, breads, crackers, white rice, and white potatoes
• MSG

Instead, try to incorporate:

• Berries of any kind
• Fish like mackerel, salmon, or anchovies
• Cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, kale, cauliflower, and brussels sprouts
• Avocados
• Grapes
• Tomatoes

By following a low-inflammatory diet, you’re already setting yourself up for a smooth recovery journey.

Dealing with inflammation via collagen

Sometimes, however, our body needs a little help here and there, or we really don’t have all the time in the world for this injury to slowly heal on its own. While eating a healthy diet is a great way to optimize recovery, supplementing your diet with collagen protein powder can benefit the body and aid in recovery in more ways than one.

Collagen is one of the most abundant proteins found naturally in the human body. In fact, it makes up about 25-35% of all the protein in the body. It pretty much is a jack-of-all-trades when it comes to the role it plays in keeping one’s body happy and healthy, but it’s especially useful in helping the body recover from injuries.

For example, synovial fluid lubricates and protects joints, ensuring flexibility and mobility. The glycine amino acid in BUBS Collagen Peptides boosts this synovial fluid production, helping increase joint mobility and functionality, and reducing inflammation and subsequent joint pain. So not only does daily supplementation of collagen help in everyday joint health, but as collagen is important in rebuilding and healing injured tendons, ligaments, and joints, it provides added support and reinforcement to the recovering area.

In addition to joint health, collagen can help improve the appearance of the skin and overall skin health. So if scarring is a concern following a surgery, collagen protein can help to minimize scars. Keep in mind, however, that collagen cannot completely remove a scar; however, it is an effective method of reducing appearances.

And lastly, collagen supplements aid in bone health and bone repair. Collagen makes up a huge part of our bones and the reduction of collagen production in the body as we age is a major factor of weak bones later in life. Therefore, supplementing collagen can help bones heal from injury as well as strengthen bones so they’re less susceptible to injury in the future.

Add collagen to your recovery regimen

Incorporating collagen into your daily routine is as simple as mixing a scoop or two of BUBS Naturals Collagen Peptides into your morning coffee, smoothie, or tea. Not only should you experience a significant reduction of inflammation in the body, but you’ll feel stronger and healthier the longer and more consistently you utilize collagen. No matter whether you’re recovering from an injury, seeking to reduce scar appearances, or wanting to focus on bone and joint health, collagen is for you!