What is it?
Wounds (cuts, abrasions, ulcers in the bowel, surgical incisions, and so on) heal naturally, restoring the surface or lining of the body to its undamaged state. The time taken for a wound to heal varies from place to place on the body from a few days to several weeks. Unfortunately, many people, especially those having operations, heal far less quickly than they should.
What causes it?
• Poor nutrition generally, especially a shortage of protein.
• Too little vitamin Ñ in the diet.
• A shortage of vitamin A.
Prevention
• Animal research shows that malnourished individuals suffer twice as many complications during healing, and that twice as many of them die from their wounds, as do normally nourished ones. The most common complication in human wound healing in hospitals is infection-in fact this is the single most common reason for postoperative patients to stay longer in hospital than they should have to. From this and other evidence it is clear that the person with a wound needs good-quality foods high in protein. Protein is the vital supplier of the raw materials necessary to rebuild damaged tissue. It does not, of course, have to be animal protein.
• Eat more vitamin Ñ. Numerous studies have shown how valuable this vitamin is in normal wound healing. One study of over 1,000 patients with wounds found that wound infections worsened as blood vitamin Ñ levels fell. Some of the people had white-blood- ‘ cell levels of vitamin Ñ that were as low as those in people with scurvy. Similar studies have been done in patients with bed sores. Two 500 mg tablets of vitamin Ñ a day healed the sores twice as fast as expected.
• Eat more vitamin A. Even minor wounds, it seems, increase the body’s need for this vitamin. Animals fed vitamin A have stronger wounds (artificially created in a laboratory). Some severe burn or accident victims develop what are called ‘stress ulcers’ in their intestines. A study in Arizona found that giving such people 50,000-100,000 IU vitamin A twice daily reduced the stress ulcers to less than a third of what would be expected in an un-supplemented group.
Vitamin A is also valuable for anyone taking steroids for the relief of arthritis or other inflammatory conditions. Anti-inflammatory drugs and even aspirin retard open-wound healing, and vitamin A can help restore the balance. Zinc can also be protective against these effects of cortisone.
• Eat more zinc and zinc-containing foods. Zinc works alongside vitamin A in wound healing and helps mobilize stores of the vitamin. It is also essential for the production of new proteins and connective tissue. In a UK study, zinc accelerated the healing of leg ulcers, for example.
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