In an earlier blog post, I told the story of Mary, a young woman who had shattered two bones in her leg in what should have been a fairly minor fall. I’d like to briefly revisit that story now, because Mary’s recovery illustrates points I made in my article on how to speed fracture healing.

Mary had an extremely serious injury to her bone. The only way it could possibly have been more serious would be if the bone had broken through the skin! Her body had a tremendous amount of work to do to knit that bone back together, even with the aid of the plates and pins holding it in place. And Mary was told at the outset that it would take at least a year, if not longer, for her bones to knit completely.

But what Mary’s doctors didn’t know was that she was determined to get back on her feet as quickly as possible, and for her, that meant finding a way to maximize her bones’ capacity to heal. That’s when Mary started the Better Bones protocol of 20 key nutrients, coupled with an alkaline diet and stress reduction (without exercise, at first, because exercising the damaged leg wasn’t really possible).

Mary’s x-rays (below) show the course of her healing from the time of the accident in February of 2009 to December 2009 (the middle x-ray was taken in June, just about 3 months after the accident). We’ve highlighted the striations of the original fracture in red on the February x-ray so you can see where the bones actually broke. It was about 6 weeks after the break that Mary started to make the dietary changes I suggested and take the Better Bones supplements I recommended to her. Later on, after her doctors approved, she started doing some gentle weight-bearing exercises to further promote bone-building activity.

In the x-ray taken in June, you can still see the lines of the fracture (red arrows), but they’re fainter and much less clearly defined. Some of the narrower sections of the break are no longer visible. At that time, Mary told me, her doctor expressed surprise at how fast she was healing, and when she explained about the Better Bones program she was on, told her that “whatever she was doing, it worked, so she should keep doing it.”

Six months later, in December of 2009, the x-ray shows bones that are completely healed — at least two and a half months ahead of schedule, maybe more, since there were no x-rays taken between June and December.

Now it’s true, Mary is a young woman, and the young tend to heal quickly. But let’s not forget, Mary was vitamin D deficient, had some hormonal imbalance, and was under a great deal of stress even before her accident. Her body’s healing mechanisms might have been more dynamic than an older person’s, but they were also coping with more than just the task of building bone — so the speed of her recovery can’t just be attributed to youthful vigor. I would argue that the supplements and the dietary protocol Mary used to support her bones’ healing capabilities was the major reason she was able to recover so quickly — far more quickly than her doctors expected.

We created the Osteo Blast blog as our forum to express opinions and educate the public about natural means of supporting and improving bone health and overall wellness. As part of this forum, we sometimes discuss medical issues and medications, and their effects on bone health in general. However, we cannot advise readers about specific medical issues in this forum. If you wish to obtain advice from Susan E. Brown, PhD, about your specific bone health and nutritional concerns, please visit our Consultations page. Other specific medical questions should be referred to your healthcare provider.