I recently got re-schooled in how useful nutrition can be for injuries. Two nights ago I was moving things around in the office and I dropped part of a CD player on my foot. I was trying to carry too many pieces at one time and one got away and landed directly on the base of the nail bed of my right big toe. I dropped to the floor. Oooooooouuuuch! I could do nothing but writhe around in pain for about a minute. Finally, I managed to hobble to my feet and get the rest of my evening activities accomplished. But when it came time for bed, I was worried. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I was in too much pain. I tried some herbal pain relief and homeopathics. Didn’t make a dent. I resisted the Advil because it bothers my stomach. Finally at 2 AM I broke down and took some. It knocked the pain down a very slight tick. Just enough so I could get to sleep for a couple of hours. The next morning as I awoke I wondered how I was going to get through my work day with the pain I was in.
Then it hit me. Nutrition! I think nutrition for everything else, and it always helps me. But for some reason I hadn’t been thinking with the nutrition for injuries. It’s hard to break that medical-think (where you need something–a drug of some sort–to force the body’s symptoms down). The nutrition-think is to help the body along with what it’s trying to accomplish. So I immediately had Dr. Sheehan test me for supplements that provide the correct nutrients to help the body regulate the fluid balance and help tissue integrity. I took a dose and, voila, within a few minutes the pain level was down from a 9.5 to an 8! Now I don’t know about you, but I think a 9.5 pain level is too much to go through the day with. But an 8, although not good, is more manageable. This was yesterday. I made it through the day (albeit at a slower pace than I would have liked). I was able to sleep last night, through the night. The pain in my toe is localized to just the nail now. It’s getting better! I had to pound that particular whole food supplement all day. Frequent, high doses. But it’s helping. And now I won’t need to drill a hole in my nail (eek).
The moral of this story for me is to think nutrition first. Unless there’s an obvious situation that requires emergency medical attention, of course. Get the emergency handled and then help the body along with the correct supplements. Injuries respond to the exact right nutritional protocol as determined by Nutrition Response Testing(R). It makes sense, because in any kind of traumatic event or stress your body will need more of certain types of vitamins and minerals. Nutrition works!
Here is my food log for my trip. I’m not 100% proud of it because I didn’t feel so well on all the restaurant food. The bottom line is that my body is sensitive to crappy food and I have to keep it to a minimum.
4-27-2016 (Wednesday, the day I left to go to Florida for training)
6:45 AM: coffee with butter
8 AM: chicken and beef stew with onion, cabbage and cauliflower
12 PM: more chicken and beef stew
2:00 PM: salad at the airport with broccoli and tuna salad on top. It looked good in the case but had this gross sweet glaze on it that did not bode well, iced tea
4:00 PM: mixed nuts, peanuts, sea snax (on the plane)
7:00 PM: at a health food store cafeteria: paneer with potato, tomato and carrot, salmon, cucumber
9:00 PM: sugar free coconut ice cream, sweetened with erithrytol
4-28-2016 Thursday
7:30 AM: coffee with butter, turkey breast, carrots and green beans (cooked in my motel kitchenette)
10:00 AM: mixed nuts
12:30 PM: diner food – everything omlette with cheese and meat, mixed veg, potato
2:00 PM black tea chai with half and half
3 PM: spicy walnuts
8:30 PM: Caribbean restaurant: 1 mini-cornbread muffin (mistake), mashed sweet potato, jamaican greens, breaded fried shrimp (mistake), grouper cake, rice, tuna kebab with onion
4-29-2016 Friday
7:30 AM: coffee with butter, more turkey breast, spinach, green beans, carrot, avocado
10:30 AM: walnuts
12:45 PM: Greek Diner: clam chowder, icelandic cod, mashed potato, mixed veg
7:00 PM: Fancy restaurant for supper: raw salmon with avocado and plantain, mint, cucumber, lemon and lime virgin cocktail, sea scallops with potatoes, spinach, and some kind of sauce, broccoli and cheese soup
Both Thursday and Friday night I woke up in the middle of the night and was not able to sleep for several hours. This means I have consumed too much of some kind of food I am sensitive too. So now that I’m home I’ve cleaned up my act a bit. No restaurant food yet! And I’m feeling better, except for my toe 🙂
