Category: Uncategorized

  Abdominal pain is one of the most common gastrointestinal symptoms, with 22-25% of the general population suffering with it at any given point in time.1 Diagnosis can be tricky (especially if the abdominal pain is intermittent or symptoms are vague), because there are so many different conditions which can cause abdominal pain. The top […]

  If your clients are scheduled for elective surgery, have you already screened them for malnutrition?   NICE guidelines for Perioperative Care in Adults, states that nutritional screening should be completed for everyone having intermediate or major/complex surgery. 1  Improving someone’s nutritional status before and after surgery, is a modifiable risk factor associated with improved […]

If your clients have type 1 or type 2 diabetes, are their blood glucose levels well managed?  How do you know? Just because someone is under the care of a GP or diabetes team, does not guarantee that the person’s blood glucose levels are well managed.  Sometimes advice isn’t adhered to and/or appointments get missed.  […]

  If you have a client with a Grade 3 or Grade 4 pressure injury and/or other wound which is slow to heal, have they ever been reviewed by a dietitian? This may sound like an unusual or surprising suggestion, but there is a massive link between someone’s nutritional status and their body’s ability to […]

There are three ways to listen to our podcast “The role of a dietitian in injury and rehabilitation — an underused resource” (part of their Wider Issues in Catastrophic Injury series) Click on the links below: Timestamp/Outline 00:02 Introduction  05:09 Role of nutrition & dietitian in rehabilitation  12:27 Muscle mass & muscle loss; protein requirements  […]

  Nonunion, referring to a broken bone which shows no evidence of healing within a specific time frame, is a massive deterrent to rehab and recovery after a complex orthopaedic trauma.  There are several contributing factors to nonunion, such as infection, poor blood supply, the type of fracture (e.g. open fractures) and the energy force […]

When people are recovering from a major trauma or injury, they have the highest nutritional needs of virtually any other time in their adult life.  However, this is often the time when these clients find themselves struggling to prepare healthy food.  Food preparation becomes challenging when someone is fatigued, they have multiple physical difficulties (such […]

  Our article was recently published in the NR Times and is reprinted here with their permission.   After a major trauma or injury, the importance of nutrition is not usually the first thing most health professionals think about.   However, in the absence of adequate nutrition, rehab and recovery will be significantly impaired.  The protein, […]

  After a major trauma or injury, many clients ask us whether they need to be taking protein powders as part of the rehabilitation process. There are two main types of protein powders: “Diet” or “lean” protein powders – these are a concentrated form of protein, because they strip out the fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and […]

Clients with a brain injury or spinal cord injury are often taking multiple medications which are usually prescribed long-term.  Certain medications can have a negative impact on someone’s nutritional status and conversely, sometimes certain foods/nutrients can affect a medication’s effectiveness.  Many clients are already nutritionally compromised after a major trauma or injury (due to metabolic […]