A common question that comes up is “how long before this pain goes away” or “how long until I am all better”. So, before you think this blog will have a definite answer for you, it probably will not, but it may direct you into having a better idea of how that timeframe is figured.
The first thing is identifying what part of the body is injured. Some areas of the body tend to heal faster or slower than others. For example, there are particular areas of the body like the wrist that if the bone breaks, it may never heal due to poor blood flow. Every area of the body has a varied amount of blood flow and other factors can affect that as well, but the short story is we need to increase blood flow to the area of injury.
Another key factor would be how long you have had the injury. If you get injured and have pain for just a few days when you get treatment, you tend to get better faster. On the other hand, if you have had this problem for 5 years or something long, you will have created compensation patterns to move around the pain or problem. This can cause more problems and longer healing time.
Severity is another factor for a longer recovery. If you have a 10/10 pain and can barely move, it will take longer than someone who is at a 1-2/10 pain level. This is usually due to the severity of the tissue injury that occurred.
Compliance with treatment is another factor in how quickly you will recover. With any sort of holistic and conservative treatment, such as chiropractic, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, etc. it will take more than one treatment to get better. If you are consistent with your treatment, you will get better faster, and the research supports that as well. The research even supports up to 2-3x faster recovery with those higher treatment numbers compared to those who are not compliant with their treatment plan given.
The individual will also plan a factor here. Are you a young, active, and healthy person, or an older sedentary couch potato? These two comparisons will heal at a vastly different rate. Other things like previous injury or pathology such as cancers or illnesses that pertain to the health history of each individual can play into this timeframe as well.
There are more factors out there, but these are a few of the factors that I ask my patients to give you an idea of what to expect for your recovery time. For example, if you sprained your ankle and needed to be back performing at 100% in 2 days, I would not be optimistic, but if all the factors line up it might be possible. Making sure that an idea is discussed can ensure that you and the practitioner are on the same page and get you back to the things that you love like your biking, skiing, hiking, or even just being able to walk around and function. Feel free to ask me or your provider how long it will take because not only is that valuable information for you to have, but the research also supports that having a treatment plan and being compliant with it tends to help your recovery time improve as well. Also, the unfortunate part is that if you have injured the area previously, you are more likely to injure it again. But if you know what is going on and what to expect, you can be prepared for it the next time it flares up.
If you want to dig real deep into healing time, here is a research article that goes into a lot of detail about more factors and why. Feel free to ask any more questions you may have and see you soon.
Tahoe’s Premiere Sports Chiropractor
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