Many people, whether they are athletes or not, have suffered from or will suffer from an acute injury at some point in their life. An active lifestyle is a good thing, but with any physical activity comes the risk of injury. When people get hurt, they often have one major question on their mind, which is: When will I feel back to normal? Unfortunately, there isn’t usually a concrete answer to this question, as injuries often vary in terms of there severity. Despite this fact, there are some phases that are common to the healing process of an acute injury, and knowing these stages of the healing process can certainly give you a more accurate idea of how long it will take to heal from a certain injury.
Inflammatory Phase
This phase usually occurs immediately after an injury is suffered and certainly within a 72-hour period of suffering an injury. Your body responds to an injury by swelling an affected area with blood in order to protect your body from further injury and to start the healing process. This restricts the movement of an injured muscle or other soft tissue, and helps keep the injured area warm so as to promote the flow of blood to this area. At this point in the healing process, a our Vancouver physiotherapist can help manage the swelling and reduce the amount of pain experienced by the injured person.
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Proliferative/Repair Phase
Once the swelling in the affected area begins to reduce, this signals the beginning of the second phase in the healing process. This phase is often referred to as the proliferation or repair phase. It is during this phase that your body starts to put the nutrients and healing components in your blood to work in the injured area. Collagen is generated in this area in order to repair the damaged tissue, while other necessary components like oxygen and vitamin C are used to aid in the formation of the new collagen. This is the part of the healing process which can vary the most in terms of duration, depending on the severity of your injury. In many cases, a trained physiotherapist can help this phase move along steadily in a manner that promotes more rapid rehabilitation.
Remodelling Phase
After the collagen and other components of your body’s healing process have been generated, the final stage of the healing process can begin. This process can also last a varying amount of time depending on how bad an injury is. Like the Repair Phase, the injured muscle or tissue can benefit from physiotherapy that is designed to improve the strength of the new tissue over time. This process can take as little as a few weeks or as much as a few months depending on how much rehabilitation the injury requires.
To learn more about how our bodies heal from acute injuries, and what the skilled team of physiotherapists at Van Sports Physiotherapy can do to help you get back to normal, feel free to continue to check out our website, or contact us today to set up n appointment.