Vitamins and Minerals that Promote Healing

If your body needs to heal from either some type of trauma or from something like surgery, you may think that all you need to do is take it easy and get plenty of rest. Oh, and perhaps take those pain pills that the doctor prescribed for you. Your body, however, needs more than rest and painkillers to help it heal. It also needs nutrients that are vital to the healing process. Unfortunately many people who are recovering from trauma or surgery usually do not have much of an appetite, which means that they are not getting the necessary nutrients from what little food they do eat. In addition, pain can cause stress. Stress can lead to a loss of appetite. This can lead to a longer period needed for the body to recuperate. Certain vitamins and minerals play a role in the healing process, and you should make an effort to supply your body with these nutrients in order to better promote healing. Following are a few that you might want to make sure you are getting if you are in the process of recuperating from a trauma or from surgery:

Vitamin A
Vitamin A is vital to the healing of the epithelium, which is the thin tissue that lines organs and covers the body. This vitamin is also important in determining the rate at which collagen is formed between cells. (Collagen is a fibrous substance that strengthens new tissue by "gluing" the cells together.) Most people around the world actually do suffer from a vitamin A deficiency; however, too much vitamin A can be toxic. If you decide to take extra vitamin A, consult with your physician and/or pharmacist as to how many IUs would be appropriate and only take the recommended dosage.

B Vitamins
We all know that the B vitamins are good for a variety of ills; e.g., stress, low energy levels. [See my article on Using Vitamins and Minerals to Deal with Stress.] The main B vitamin, however, that is so often overlooked is folate or folic acid. The other is B12. Both are instrumental in maintaining red blood cells, which carry nutrients throughout the body and assist in promoting healing, especially of wounds including surgical incisions. You may think that you are getting plenty of the B vitamins if you take B-Complex and/or multivitamins. Check the labels, though. Many multivitamins do not even contain folate and some B-Complex formulas contain very little. More people than you might imagine have low folate levels. Check with your physician to determine if you are one of these people and if you need to take extra folate.

Vitamin C
Vitamin C is probably the major vitamin necessary for the development of collagen. Vitamin C also encourages capillaries around the area of a wound or a surgical incision to renew themselves and to bring in more nutrients, red blood cells, and antibodies to the area in order to promote healing. Our bodies do not store vitamin C, however, which means that taking one vitamin C pill in the morning will not do the trick. In addition, pain and stress can cause our bodies to lose even more vitamin C. This means that you should take at least 500 milligrams of vitamin C -- and even more if you are suffering from a severe wound -- to boost your body's healing power. (This works any time you are sick, actually. I keep vitamin C lozenges around for such occasions.)

Zinc
We do not hear a lot about zinc. It seems that it is one of those minor minerals that we might notice on the label of our multivitamins. It has been shown, however, that people who require a long recuperation period may develop skin problems and have wounds that heal much slower than usual. Turns out that low zinc levels can be linked to these conditions. Check with your physician as to whether or not you should increase your levels of zinc.
These are the major vitamins and minerals your body will need. Others that your body will probably need include iron, calcium, and protein. If you are not getting the necessary amounts of any of these nutrients from your diet, you may need to take additional supplements. You should, however, as I have frequently mentioned in this article, speak with your physician regarding your particular needs.

References:

Bricklin, Mark and Sharon Claessens. The Natural Healing Cookbook. Emmaus, PA: Rodale Press, Inc., 1981.

eMedicine: Vitamin A Toxicity.

Health Publications. Alternative Medicine Review, Nov. 2003 by Douglas J. MacKay and Alan L. Miller: Nutritional support for wound healing.