Avoiding injury is essential for optimal long-term physical performance. Whether you’re a professional athlete or love to spend time outside walking, staying in good physical shape lowers the risk of injury.
Unfortunately, injuries are often unexpected. However, they’re usually the result of improper movements like slipping or unexpected strains from lifting something heavy or running faster than we should.
Tendon healing is complex because it takes the body much longer to repair torn or damaged tendons. Tendons attach muscles to bone and, as a result, are made of solid and fibrous materials.
The strength and function of tendons, though, mean they have relatively low blood flow, which makes them hard to regenerate. As a result, tendon injuries frequently require surgery to heal.
Here’s some basic information on tendon healing and how to speed recovery.
Types of Tendon Injuries
The significant distinction between tendon injuries involves severity. A minor tendon sprain, for example, is typically best managed with rest, ice, anti-inflammatories, and a slow return to regular activity.
Minor or partial tears will frequently heal naturally, but they require more time to heal. Often, injured people need weeks or months to feel good again. Sometimes, partial tendon tears won’t recover fully, so people deal with things like chronic pain, loss of strength, or limited function.
Complete tendon tears typically don’t heal. Repairing the torn tendon, whether it’s the Achilles or the bicep, needs surgery to fix. Surgeons get inside the body and reinforce the tendon before reattaching it to the bone.
Of course, surgery usually needs the most time to recover. However, people can return to full health as long as they follow the prescribed treatment plan and actively participate in rehabilitation.
Ways to Recover After a Tendon Injury
How can you treat a torn or strained tendon? Whether or not you have surgery, tendon healing takes time. However, here are some things you can do to speed things along.
Rest – This is likely the most important aspect of recovery. People often experience a minor tear or tendon strain but mistakenly think they can play or work through it. What usually ends up happening, though, is that they eventually tear the damaged tendon completely. What was a relatively minor issue now requires surgery.
If you hurt your tendon, rest it until you feel completely better. When in doubt, talk to a doctor. They can do an MRI to determine whether there is a tear and work with you on a recovery plan.
Rest doesn’t always mean laying in bed. It does, however, mean reduced strain and physical activity.
Controlling Inflammation – Inflammation, while a natural immune response designed to prevent more damage to an injury, can get in the way of healing. To move your body through the stages of healing faster, you should do what you can to prevent excess or prolonged inflammation. For example, icing the injury or taking anti-inflammatory medications can reduce pain and get you back to good health faster.
Physical Therapy – Working with a physical therapist is a great idea for people with tendon injuries. After surgery, the newly repaired tendon is weaker, so you must be careful as you return to regular activity. Physical therapy helps build stronger support muscles around the tendon to relieve strain when you start walking or lifting things again.
In addition to these steps, you should focus on physical health as much as possible. Losing weight, eating a nutritional diet, and taking vitamin supplements can all make healing from a tendon injury much easier.
You should consult your doctor whenever you’re trying something new or need advice about getting back to running or other straining activities. The recovery time for a tendon injury can range from weeks to years.
Peptides & Tendon Healing
Peptides are short chains of amino acids with various physiological benefits. When amino acids are joined in specific sequences, they can trigger biological responses that may help to heal injuries or inflammation faster. For example, BPC 157 https://www.peptidesciences.com/bpc-157-5mg is a partial sequence of the body protection compound, which is found in human gastric juice.
In tests done on animals, BPC 157 boosted tendon healing by recruiting more fibroblasts and blood flow to affected areas. In addition, it worked to cause cells to proliferate and migrate faster and increased extracellular matrix proteins like collagen, elastin, fibrin, etc.
Research in rats showed that BPC 157 promotes collateralization and boosts fibroblast density in the setting of tendon healing.
