Every time you strenuously work out a muscle, its fibers tear. Muscles grow through exercise because they rebuild themselves bigger every time they tear. But if a muscle is severely over-exerted or damaged via injury, it can suffer massive tearing that can be painful and take considerable time to heal. No matter which type of tearing you're experiencing, maximizing your body's potential for efficient healing requires healthy levels of key vitamins.
Vitamin A
According to "The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements, and Herbs: A Completely Cross-Referenced User's Guide for Optimal Health" by Nicola Reavley, vitamin A is key to proper cell growth and repair in muscles and other soft tissues. It also helps create new cells in connective tissue, making it appropriate for the treatment of torn tendons and ligaments. The National Institutes of Health reports that the recommended daily intake of vitamin A is 900 mcg for men and 700 mcg for women. While dosing can be slightly increased in the short term during recovery from torn muscles, you must be careful not to take too much vitamin A, as overdoses can be serious. In amounts exceeding 25,000 IU per day, overdose symptoms can occur including bone loss, liver damage and nausea. Pregnant women can also experience birth defects as a result of vitamin A overdose. To avoid overdoses, follow your dietary intake of vitamin A if you're also supplementing your nutrients with vitamin A tablets for muscle recovery. Vitamin A can be found in meat, eggs, fish and dairy products, and its beta-carotene form is found in carrots, squashes, sweet potatoes and most dark, green leafy vegetables.
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is the most important vitamin for speedy muscle recovery and tissue repair, according to "Current Therapy in Sports Medicine" by Joseph S. Torg and Roy J. Shephard. Excessive levels of vitamin C won't help accelerate recovery any more than normal, healthy levels, but those who are vitamin C deficient will heal much slower. Vitamin C is also essential to the synthesis of collagen, the substance that makes up scar tissue, tendons, ligaments and blood cells, according to the National Institutes of Health. Adult men should take 90 mg per day, and adult women should consume 75 mg per day. It is a water-soluble vitamin, which means that excess amounts are discarded in waste water rather than stored in fat. This means that you cannot easily overdose on vitamin C as you can with vitamin A, but it also means that you must consume it daily to keep your levels up. Dietary sources include citrus fruits, green peppers, broccoli and most leafy green vegetables.
Vitamin E
"The Purification Plan: Pure Vitality, Pure Resilience, Pure Health" by Peter Bennett explains that vitamin E helps address torn muscles in two important ways. First, it supports the production of red blood cells, which are essential to speedy muscle repair. The second benefit is less important to the repair of torn muscle injury, but very helpful when it comes to the routine tearing that follows strenuous exercise. Vitamin E is an antioxidant, which means it seeks out and binds with harmful particles called free radicals. These free radicals can attack healthy cells, including muscle cells, which can prolong and even worsen the inflammation and tenderness that follows extensive muscle stress. It's important to take vitamin E and other antioxidants after exercise because strenuous muscle use releases more free radicals within your body. Adults should take 15 mg per day of vitamin E, which can be found naturally in wheat germ, corn, nuts, seeds, spinach and other leafy green vegetables.
References
- "The New Encyclopedia of Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements, and Herbs: A Completely Cross-Referenced User's Guide for Optimal Health"; Nicola Reavley; 1999
- "Current Therapy in Sports Medicine"; Joseph S. Torg, Roy J. Shephard; 1995
- "The Purification Plan: Pure Vitality, Pure Resilience, Pure Health"; Peter Bennett; 2005
- National Institutes of Health: Vitamin A
- National Institutes of Health: Vitamin C
