broken bones

[RyanD]

Hi Shelley,

My poor brother got his jaw fracture in 2 places while playing in a soccer game. He had to have surgery and get a minor plate put in. And he can't eat solid food for a bloody month! Anyways, I'm gonna get him on fresh juices, bone broths, and protein shakes as much as possible to avoid the crappy market protein shakes and stuff like that as much as possible. I remember reading somewhere that it is not wise to take calcium supplements right after a fracture/break because it can interfere with the body "sticking" the two bones back together. Is this true, and if so, how long should he avoid calcium suppies? I was planning to give him emergen-c, calmag fizz, and some biosil (silicon drops) to help with the healing. Can you recommend anything else to help?

Thanks

[shelley]

HOO boy, that's not fun! The problem with plain calcium supplements is that they don't have vitamin D, which is essential in the knitting process. But if he's getting plenty of sun, or the ocassional dose of cod liver oil, or taking Cal-Mag Fizz which has D, he should be okay with small doses (500 mg of calcium).

You can also, if you want to speed healing, give him a couple doses of Iodine, and just one to three doses of Comfrey, if you can find it. Comfrey is a powerful accelerator so they often take it off the shelves, sigh.

The diet sounds wonderful, but if he's going to be eating a ton of raw eggs, you might want to occasionally use powdered eggs or use one egg and a teaspoon of 'simply whites' to reduce the odds of salmonella, or add the eggs to the broth, since he can't afford to get sicker. My usual take is the odds are way too high for that to happen, but when someone has their jaw wired together it might be wise to be extra-careful.

[RyanD]

sure! btw, aren't powdered eggs always bad, cos of the oxidized cholesterol?

[shelley]

They're always worse than fresh, but everything is a give-and-take. I don't worry about the oxidized cholesterol because if your'e taking lecithin and magnesium that handles all cholesterol issues.