How does Vitamin D help with joint recovery?

Vitamin D is essential for the metabolism of calcium and carbohydrates, supporting bone strength and helping to regulate the body's inflammatory response during injury recovery.

Why is hydration important for muscle strains?

Water aids the body in delivering essential vitamins and minerals to soft tissues and helps remove toxins that can cause increased inflammation and muscle fatigue.

How vitamins & minerals can help recovery & rehabilitation: an osteopath’s guide

Written by: Sheena Spencer, CIDESCO ITEC B15239, FHT 189795, Beauty Manager & Senior Specialist

Reviewed: Violeta Bariean, VTCT (VRQ) level 2, 3 & 4, FHT 214061 Senior Beauty & Massage Therapist

Nutrition tips for healthy joints

At bodytonic clinic, our Osteopathy and Sports Massage work means we meet a lot of sportspeople and athletes, and we’ve got years of experience of treating the most common injuries. Part of our Osteopathy and Sports Massage is as much about prevention and healthy living as it is about rehabilitation.

As well as proper stretches and warm-ups, it’s important to consider the role of vitamins and minerals in injury prevention and recovery. Professional and amateur athletes alike can often forget about the role of nutrition in the recovery process, as their attention is often focussed instead on the more physical aspect of rehabilitation. Anyone experiencing neck pain, shoulder pain, muscle strains or aches, should always take care to consider the nutritional aspect of the healing process. In addition, injury can be prevented by a healthy and balanced diet.

How nutrition can promote healing

Our infographic provides an insight into some of the general benefits of a balanced vitamin/mineral intake. These include:

Whilst our infographic contains five of the most common vitamins and minerals (and where you can find them), it’s also worth bearing in mind more general lifestyle/dietary trends you can introduce into your everyday life to help promote well-being, prevent injury, and of course, just ensure you’re eating right!

A balanced diet

As you can see from our graphic, a regular intake of vitamins (A, C, K, D) are just some of the common vitamins and minerals found in everyday foods. The benefits of vitamins, minerals and proteins are numerous, but it’s worth citing a few:

A prescribed daily amount

Ensuring that you get your prescribed daily amount of vitamins, minerals and proteins can be hard, and it’s possible that you may not succeed every day. But the recommended daily amount is as follows.

Many of these are easily found in our everyday essential such as fruit, vegetables, pasta, meat, fish, cereal. It’s also worth supplementing your dietary intake with vitamin and mineral supplements.

Don’t forget hydration

The fact that drinking water is absolutely essential to our overall health and well-being is often easily overlooked. Water boosts help to boost muscle energy, endurance and overall alertness (which is essential in the prevention of injury/fatigue). Water also aids the body in removing any toxins which could cause inflammation, and delivering vitamins and minerals to the soft tissues.