Supplements

Supplements are the quiet, unsexy half of recovery: the raw materials I hand my body before I ask it to rebuild a foot. This page tracks what I lean on and why.

The one tub I’d save in a fire: collagen

Collagen is the holy grail of soft-tissue support, so it gets top billing. I take Anthony’s unflavored: two scoops in water daily, thrown back like a tequila shot and always chased with vitamin C, which is a non-negotiable co-factor (no vitamin C, no collagen). I started a couple of weeks before surgery and I’m keeping it up straight through recovery, because the smart move is to stock the shelves before the rebuild. The full story’s in the journal.

The magic vitamin: vitamin C

Vitamin C takes one of the top spots in my protocol, and it earns it twice over. First, it’s necessary for collagen absorption, so I’ve been taking the two together for almost as long as I’ve been taking collagen (see above: no vitamin C, no collagen). Second, it’s required by my surgeon’s post-op protocol — seven weeks of it. The reason: vitamin C stimulates the bone-building cells known as osteoblasts and acts as a powerful antioxidant that protects bone tissue from damaging free radicals. Basically, it’s a magic vitamin.