How Long Will it Take to Heal?

No matter what your ailment, the vast majority of your recovery is dependent on your body healing itself. No matter how you describe your injury, whether it's a tear or strain or sprain or inflammation, your soft tissue is repaired by your own body. There's no exception. The healing process is incredibly complex. And, it goes on for a lot longer than you think. The pain may be gone in a few weeks, but your body continues to heal itself long after the pain has disappeared. It is very common for the full healing process to continue for 2 years or longer, even for rather minor injuries.

If you have a soft tissue injury, your body has to heal itself.

• Pain killers don't heal you. Your body heals itself.
• Drugs don't heal you. They can fight infection but your body heals the tissue damage itself.
• Even after surgery, your body has a wound that it has to heal itself.
• Drugs only mask the pain. You need need the reminder of the injury in order to avoid further strain.

When it comes to healing times, there are many different factors to consider. While most of these things are out of your control, there are actions you can take to minimize your healing time and reduce your risk of re-injury. We understand how frustrating it is to be injured and that's why we're here to help you heal as quickly and completely as possible.

Being patient and staying positive are two of the most important things you can do when recovering from a soft tissue injury. This can be difficult but it will contribute to a better, faster recovery process overall.

Healing Times Depend on Many Different Factors

• How severe the injury is (What is the Grade of the Injury or Tear?)
• How long you've been injured (Is the injury new or old? Is it a recurring injury?)
• Where the injury is located (Is it located in an area that you will have difficulty resting and restricting movement of, or in an area that might be easier to rest and immobilize?)
• How much time you can dedicate to treatments (How often are you treating your injury? How long are the treatment durations?)
• How much rest you are able to get (If you are not resting the injured area sufficiently this can lead to further strain and potential re-injury)
• All injuries have different estimated healing times (As illustrated in the list below, a herniated disc in your back can take about 1-2 months to heal, while Plantar Fasciitis can take 4 months or more to heal)
• Every person is different so there is no definitive healing timeline for any injury

What You Can Do to Heal Faster

• Limit/restrict movement of the area of injury in order to avoid further pain and possibility of re-injury - rest, use crutches if applicable, use your ColdCure^® or BFST^® wrap with the Accessory Strap to immobilize the area
• Commit yourself to the treatments - Use ColdCure^® and/or BFST^® according to the instructions and recommended treatment guidelines
• Start with ColdCure^® treatments first until the pain and swelling are under control, then start using BFST^® to get the healing process started
• Use ColdCure^® and BFST^® in combination for maximum results by alternating treatments - use ColdCure^® any time you experience pain and swelling and use BFST^® the rest of the time to speed healing
• Don't stop using BFST^® once you think you've healed - keep using it for months to prevent against re-injury, especially before you do any physical activity
• Use ColdCure^® during any pain flare ups or if you've re-injured the area and you're experiencing inflammation or swelling

It's Important to Understand That...

• Healing doesn't happen overnight: Even though our products help speed up the healing process, healing still has to take it's time, so let the treatments and your body do their work and don't rush to resume any activities that could cause re-injury
• Recovery is a cycle of healing and re-injury: Say for example that your tissue has healed to 40% strength, then you do an activity that strains the area, lowering your tissue strength back to 20%, then you rest the area and get your tissue strength up to 60% this time, then you do an activity that strains the area again and this lowers your tissue strength back down to 40% - this cycle takes much longer than most people realize, so it's crucial that you keep using ColdCure^® and BFST^® throughout this process
• While you may no longer have pain, this doesn't mean that your tissue has healed: Your tissue takes many months to get back to 90% strength, so even if the pain is 100% gone, your tissue may only be 20% or 30% healed. Unfortunately once your tissue is damaged, it will never return to 100% strength.

Estimated Healing Times of Common Injuries & Conditions

• Rotator Cuff: 6-8 weeks if it's not a full tear and 6 months if it's a full tear that requires surgery. A Rotator Cuff injury can plague you forever if untreated.
• MCL: A few days to a week for a Grade 1 injury, 2-4 weeks for a Grade 2 tear and 4-8 weeks for a Grade 3 tear
• Carpal Tunnel: The hand must be rested for 2-6 weeks, if symptoms last as long as 6 months surgery is an option
• Shin Splints: 4+ weeks
• Tendonitis: Several weeks to several months depending on the location and severity of your tendonitis
• Plantar Fasciitis: About 4 months, if pain persists for upwards of 6-12 months, surgery is an option
• Herniated Disc: 1-2 months, if symptoms haven't improved after 6 weeks, surgery is an option

The Healing/Re-Injury Cycle

Taking the time to heal now will pay off in the long run. It will allow your injury to heal sufficiently so you can get back to being active at full (or close to full) tissue strength. While it's likely that you will re-injure at some point, you won't get any of the healing done unless you rest. The goal is to do as much healing as possible in between re-injury.

If you start being too active too soon, you'll re-injure the area and undo any healing you've accomplished. If you persist with this activity, your body will never get a chance to recover and you'll be plagued with this injury for years to come, healing and re-injuring the area over and over. This will lead to a lifetime of unnecessary pain.

If you take the time to heal now, you can get back to being active in weeks or months instead of having to deal with the injury for the rest of your life.

Please take time to understand the healing process we have described. At different stages your body may have only regained 10% or 20% or 50% of its former strength. If you push your body beyond that limit, you're going to tear the tissue open again and reset the healing process back to stage 1. The pain is usually gone during stage 2 when only the Type 1 tissue is in place. You may only have regained 20% or 30% of the strength even though 100% of the pain is gone. If you're taking pain killers, your pain may be gone but your tissue strength is only at 10% or 15%. The problem isn't that your body isn't healing. The problem is that you are re-injuring the area again and again and again. This has to stop if you want to get better.

Click here for a more in-depth explantion of how your body heals.

The Ultimate Solution

King Brand Healthcare Products^® produces 2 specific products to help with the healing process. We have a ColdCure^® product which is specifically for controlling pain and helping with the containment and membrane formation process. This is very important immediately following the injury and for after every re-injury (which even with the best of intentions will happen). Our second product is a BFST^® device which is specifically for aiding in the Stage 2, 3 and 4 healing process.

ColdCure^® Stabilizes Your Injury

The ColdCure^® wraps have 2 valuable functions. First, immediately after injury, and again after every re-injury, your body has to stop new bleeding and tissue damage. New membranes form around the newly damaged tissue. ColdCure^® wraps help this process by causing the circulatory pathways to contract and reduce flow. This makes it easier for membranes to form and cover/seal the leaks. Both the cold and the compression of the wrap provide this benefit. Many injuries and re-injuries are very painful. A ColdCure^® wrap is an excellent way to treat the pain quickly and effectively. The effectiveness of these devices at relieving pain amazes most people the first time they use them. Many people find them much more effective and faster acting than pain killers. Treatment wise, they are a much better choice because most pain killers can actually interfere with the first stage of the healing process. By 'thinning' the blood, traditional pain killers thwart the membrane containment process. What's worse is that drugs can mask the injury and lead to a false sense of ability causing people to re-injure themselves again. If your injury has ongoing pain and swelling, ColdCure^® is an excellent therapeutic choice.

BFST^® Stimulates Blood Flow While at Rest

The BFST^® device works by stimulating blood flow and lymphatic activity in the healing tissue. Proper circulation is essential to the growth of new tissue. When you're injured and idle though, the circulation in injured tissue is limited. By using regular BFST^® treatments you can stimulate the blood flow to your Type 1 and Type 2 and final replacement tissue. This can help it to regrow as quickly and healthy as possible. The healing / re-injury process is almost inevitable. The important thing is to heal as much as you can in between re-injury. You want to minimize the time it takes to heal and minimize the amount of permanent damage left to the surrounding tissue. Remember, long after the pain goes away, the healing process continues. BFST^® treatments should be continued for the entire healing period if you want to regain the maximum amount of strength in the minimum amount of time. How well you heal and how quickly you heal is up to you. How you treat your wounded tissue matters.