The lower leg is an important part of the human body. More than half of the activities of a person’s life rely on the lower leg to complete. Therefore, lower leg injuries will not only cause severe pain but also affect daily activities such as walking and jumping.
You need to know what types of injuries to expect, so you know how to treat them. For example, around 30% of all lower leg injuries are fractures. You will know what steps to take if you know what type of injury it is most likely to be.
Therefore, for people with lower leg injuries, how to recover more quickly may be their biggest concern. This blog will analyze this issue in detail for you.
How to Judge the Type of Injury of Your Lower Leg?
Knowing the cause of the injury and the corresponding symptoms can help you better judge your lower leg injury and carry out a targeted treatment and recovery plan. Normally, lower leg injuries are divided into acute injuries and chronic injuries. You will be a lot better off if know the causes and symptoms.
Acute Injuries
Acute injury refers to injury caused by sudden violence. Common injuries to the lower leg are shin bruises, lower leg strains and rupture, and fracture.
Shin Bruises
Shin bruises are usually caused by direct impacts on the front of the lower leg, such as falling, hitting furniture, or some sports injuries. It usually causes bruises on the calves but no bleeding.
Calf Strains and Rupture
Muscle damage may be caused by direct injuries, such as lifting a overweight objects. If you feel pain in the lower leg muscles, bruising or swelling of the lower leg, and you are unable to move normally, your lower leg may be strained or even broken.
Fractures
Lower leg fractures are mostly caused by direct injuries such as crushing, bumping. In this case, the soft tissue damage of the lower leg is often severe. Indirect injuries are mostly fractures caused by falls from high places, sprains, or slips.
The symptoms of lower leg fractures are severe pain, swelling, poor movement, numbness. Fractures need weeks or even months to recover, and severe cases require surgical treatment.
Chronic Injury
Chronic injuries, also known as cumulative injuries, are the damage to the muscles, fascia, ligaments, bones, joints, and other tissues caused by excessive exertion of a certain part of the body for a long time. Common chronic injuries of the lower legs are as follows.
Shin Splints
Shin splints are mainly pain caused by repeated excessive force on the lower leg. The conditions that may cause Shin splints are excessive tension of the gastrocnemius, running on a hard road, overtraining, etc.
Stress Fracture in the Tibia
A stress fracture in the tibia is different from general fractures, it is usually a fatigue fracture caused by accumulated stress. The shin tibia is the most prone to fracture. It is related to overload training. It is common in athletes who bear more weight on their lower limbs, such as basketball, football, tennis, gymnasts, and ballet dancers.
Compartment Syndrome
Compartment syndrome is due to the increase of the contents in the fascial space The increased pressure leads to avascular necrosis of the muscle. Compartment syndrome is mainly manifested by obvious swelling of the limbs, severe pain, and limited mobility in the early stage. In severe cases, you may feel numb and pulseless.
Factors that May Affect your Clower leg Recovery
After clarifying some causes of your injury and related treatments, knowing the factors that affect the recovery process can provide you with some useful ideas for a better and faster recovery. Here are 4 common factors.
Age
Age is an important factor affecting recovery. Adolescents and young people have strong body repair capabilities, so they can recover quickly after injury. However, the various functions of the body of elderly patients are significantly weakened, and once they are injured, the recovery time will be relatively slower.
Blood Circulation
On the one hand, the blood circulation in the injured area can ensure the oxygen and nutrients needed for tissue regeneration, on the other hand, it also plays an important role in the absorption of necrotic substances and avoiding infections. Therefore, whether the blood circulates well will also affect the recovery effect.
Nutrition
Lack of nutrition will delay wound healing. The nutrients related to wound healing includes trace elements such as copper and zinc, and vitamins including vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E. And the demand for these nutrients will be greater during the period of wound healing.
Unhealthy Habits
Some unhealthy habits can also have a negative impact on recovery from injuries, such as drinking and smoking. They can reduce the body’s resistance and stimulate the expansion of capillaries, thereby increasing the chance of infection and delaying the speed of recovery.
How to Make the Lower leg Recover Faster?
Whether your lower leg is slightly or severely injured, you will spend a period and energy to get it back to normal. Paying attention to the tips below may help you recover more quickly and more effectively.
Medical Treatments
Medications can effectively promote the recovery of the injury. For example, medicines that relax muscles and promote blood circulation can reduce the edema and pain of the lower leg muscle strain. However, keep in mind that the use of drugs must be under the guidance of professional doctors. Only in this way can you achieve the effect of comprehensive treatment and avoid the serious consequences of using the wrong drugs.
Nutritional Supplements
Nutrition during the recovery is also indispensable. During the recovery period, you need to eat more foods with high protein content, such as beef, pork, chicken, eggs, dairy products, soy products, etc. They are rich in high- quality protein, which is easily absorbed by the human body and can supplement the essential amino acids that the human body need, thereby promoting the recovery of trauma. In addition, fresh vegetables and fruits including celery, spinach, apples can supplement the vitamins, trace elements, and dietary fiber needed by the human body and are also helpful for digestion and absorption.
Quit Alcohol and Smoking
Some unhealthy habits can hinder the recovery process of the lower leg. So for those who like to smoke and drink, you must adjust these habits during lower leg recovery, which can help you better recover while having a healthier body.
Rest and Proper Exercise
If you want to quickly recover from leg soft tissue damage, you have to rest more and avoid excessive exercise or the condition may get aggravated. When you feel severe swelling in your calves during the recovery period, you can raise the affected limb to relieve the uncomfortable feeling. At the same time, Rehabilitation training is also helpful, which can effectively prevent various complications such as poor limb function, joint stiffness, and osteoporosis after healing. However, it should be noted that rehabilitation training needs to be carried out gradually with the help of professional physicians.
Use walking aids correctly-Such as Knee Scooter
In most cases, lower leg injuries will affect your normal movement, and large movements will slow down the speed of recovery. A knee scooter is a recovery legs device specially designed for those with knee and lower leg injuries. Using a knee scooter can not only prevent your injured part from bearing weight but also help your daily activities easier and more comfortably. Compared with traditional crutches, they can support your lower leg more effectively and reduce the frequency and range of your movement of the injured parts. More importantly, it can free your hands, you can use it to move and do things that require hands. For people in the recovery period, a knee scooter is a very useful helper.
Conclusion
The recovery of the lower leg is a slow process. In this process, in addition to receiving treatment, you also need to take care of the injured area patiently and adopt some methods that can help better recovery. More importantly, don’t forget to maintain an optimistic attitude and face your daily life in a positive state. Hope you can recover as soon as possible!