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A: Holly Pittard is a Brody medical student who has an interest in physical medicine and rehabilitation as well as family medicine. For those of you who may have never met doctors who specialize in PMR, they are nerve, muscle, bone and brain experts who treat injury or illness nonsurgically to decrease pain and restore function. You can read more about PMR at www.aapmr.org. Here is what Holly wants you to know.

Whenever you go to doctors, they normally remind you to exercise and eat healthy. Both these behaviors help to improve your cholesterol, blood pressure, strength, mental health and physical well being overall. You’ve heard that exercise and healthy eating can help you live longer, but did you know that they also can help you recover quicker?

For example, if you broke a bone in your leg, you might ask how long will it take for you to heal or recover. The answer would depend on factors such as your age, your diet and your strength before you broke your leg. You can’t change your age, but you do have control over your diet and strength. The stronger and healthier you were before, then the faster your recovery might be.

While recovering from the broken leg, you would be limited in your mobility and limited in which muscles you could use. The American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons states that if an injury takes several weeks to heal, you are likely to lose muscle strength in the injured area. The muscles that you are not using as much will start to atrophy or wither.

For more info, please read Good Nutrition Helps in Healing, by Reflector.com.