Eat These 9 Nutrients to Heal Achilles Tendonitis Fast (+ 2 Mistakes)

Achilles tendonitis isn’t just a pain - it can get in the way of your training, your life, and mental well-being. So I wanted to make your life easier by bringing together all the nutrition research on how to heal Achilles tendonitis in one place - this article.

I started getting Achilles tendonitis after taking antibiotics which trigger tendonitis (or - worse - rupture) as a known side effect.

Luckily some foods help build muscle and collagen - the stuff tendons are made from. These foods can prevent tendonitis and improve healing.

So, how to heal Achilles tendonitis?

Here’s my carefully curated list of nutrients to heal Achilles tendonitis naturally.

How to heal Achilles tendonitis: nutrients to include in your diet

Tendons take a long time to heal. (1)

Two things make Achilles tendonitis worse:

1. Hypoxia (low oxygen)

If you don’t have enough oxygen, you die. If your cells don’t have enough oxygen, they die too. (2)

2. Oxidative stress

Oxidative stress is your immune system accidentally damaging your body. Oxidative stress increases with inflammation and overexercising, and it kills tendon cells.

The following foods and nutrients help prevent hypoxia and oxidative stress in your tendons, and promote recovery.

1. Vitamin C

Your body needs more vitamin C when you have higher oxidative stress. And it’s particularly important for healing tendonitis.

Vitamin C is an antioxidant, and it’s crucial for your body to build collagen. (3)

Here’s what supplementing vitamin C can do:

• Speed up bone healing (after a fracture)
• Increase type I collagen synthesis (the stuff your tendons are made from)
• Reduce oxidative stress (4)
• Increase angiogenesis (new blood vessel growth) - improving oxygen supply. (5) (Tendons don’t have many blood vessels, which is why they heal slowly.) (6)
• Increase new cell growth (2,7)

Sounds amazing, right? But there are a few dosage issues…

Gut warning

If you’ve tried a high dose of vitamin C, you may have had diarrhoea.

Here’s the problem: your body doesn’t absorb what it doesn’t need and excretes the rest. (That means a few quick trips to the bathroom.)

If you have an IV and can get the vitamin C straight into your bloodstream, you can give yourself a high dose of vitamin C without the gut issues. Studies show that this speed ups recovery much more than a pill. (8)

If (like 99.9% of people) you don’t have an IV, you’ll have to make do with smaller doses. I recommend eating foods high in vitamin C and taking a supplement to make sure you’re not deficient.

Dosage

There’s no one-dose-fits-all when it comes to vitamin C (or any nutrient, for that matter).

I buy powdered vitamin C and edge my dose up over a few hours until I start getting gassy. Then I know I’m at my limit before the diarrhoea hits. (Please do this at home…)

2. Vitamin D

I didn’t used to supplement vitamin D - until I got a stress fracture.

Now I supplement every day.

Most people can’t get enough vitamin D from the sun. Sun cream stops you making vitamin D. But without sun cream you risk DNA and skin damage, and faster ageing.

Luckily we have vitamin D supplements, so you can stay healthy without risking cancer and wrinkles.

Vitamin D increases cell renewal and reduces oxidative stress. (9) Crucial for healing Achilles tendonitis.

If you’re experiencing symptoms of vitamin D deficiency or you’re at higher risk for vitamin D deficiency you must start supplementing.

This is the vitamin D supplement I take.

Dosage

The dose of vitamin D you need varies depending on many factors, including several genes which determine how much vitamin D you make from sunlight and your risk of vitamin D deficiency.

3. Vitamin A

Retinoic acid is the type of vitamin A you need for healthy tendons. (10)

You can only get retinoic acid from animal foods. The type of vitamin A in plants is called beta-carotene. Animals (humans included) convert the beta-carotene from plant foods into vitamin A.

This isn’t a problem, but you can’t convert 100% of the beta-carotene you eat. More like 20%. So you have to sure you’re eating plenty of foods high in beta-carotene to make enough vitamin A to speed up Achilles tendon healing.

Dosage

The amount of beta-carotene you need to eat depends on your BCMO1 genes, which tell you how fast you convert beta-carotene to retinoic acid.

4. Protein (collagen amino acids)

Tendons are collagen (type I, if you’re a biology nerd).

What’s collagen made from?

I’m sure you know that collagen is a type of protein which makes your muscles, tendons, bones and cartilage.

Collagen is 30% glycine, 17% proline, plus some lysine, alanine, glutamine and arginine.

Should you supplement collagen for Achilles tendonitis?

3 months of supplementing collagen peptides (plus calf-strengthening exercises) seems to speed up Achilles tendonitis recovery compared to placebo. (11)

It helps with pain too. Taking collagen plus vitamin C was more effective than prescription painkillers for reducing the pain in 40 people with Achilles tendonitis. (12)

But here’s the good news: you don’t have to supplement collagen itself (an animal product).

Don’t waste your money

The collagen hype is overrated. You’ll waste your money (and innocent lives) by taking collagen. Here’s why.

You can’t absorb intact proteins through your digestive tract into your blood. The molecules are too big.

So when you consume collagen, your stomach breaks down the protein into the individual amino acids. You absorb these, then rebuild your own collagen. (13)

So you just need the right amino acids.

No, bone broth isn’t a thing

I know what some of you clever uns are asking right now: “What about bone broth?”

Nope. Studies show that bone broth contains such low levels of amino acids that drinking any humanly-possible amount can’t support tendon healing. (14)

So please save your time, money (and spare a few animals’ lives) by eating a variety of plant-based foods high in protein which provide the amino acids you need. Or a plant-based protein powder.

5. Glycine

Glycine gets a section of its own because it’s crucial for tendon healing. It’s the rate-limiting nutrient for making collagen and glutathione. (15)

Remember we talked about oxidative stress being one of two main problems for tendonitis? Well, glutathione is the most important antioxidant in your entire body.

I recommend supplementing both glycine and glutathione if you have Achilles tendonitis and want to heal it faster.

Glycine is cheap and easy to find. But you can’t supplement glutathione itself because it’s destroyed in your stomach. Instead, you’ll need to supplement N-acetylcysteine which your body converts into glutathione (along with the help of selenium). (16)

6. Leucine

Sorry, we’re not done with the amino acids science lesson yet.

Leucine is a special type of amino acid called branched-chain amino acids. These are critical for muscle rebuilding, recovery and growth. (15)

Leucine is the most important because it’s the rate-limiting amino acid. So if you don’t get enough leucine in your diet, your Achilles tendon won’t heal.

One study found that athletes who supplemented high-leucine protein powder every day grew more muscle and had less injuries than those who didn’t take extra leucine. (17)

Eat these plant-based sources of leucine to heal Achilles tendonitis more quickly, and consider adding a protein powder if you don’t think you’re getting enough from your diet.

7. Green tea

Now, this is a hype I can get on board with.

Green tea can speed up your metabolism and help heal Achilles tendonitis.

Studies show that consuming both green tea and glycine can aid Achilles tendon healing by:

1. Increasing collagen synthesis
2. Reducing inflammation (18)

This combo increases the presence of metalloproteinase-2, which indicates that your tissues are regenerating. (19)

8. Milk thistle

You may have heard of milk thistle as a good hangover cure. There’s a good reason for that.

Milk thistle contains high levels of silymarin - an anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, pain-killing and “regenerative” molecule. No wonder it makes you feel better.

Studies show silymarin can also help heal Achilles tendonitis. (20)

I recommend taking a milk thistle supplement with any tendon injury to speed up healing.

9. Nitric oxide-enhancing foods

Nitric oxide (NO) is a free radical important for tissue healing and regeneration. (21)

Free radicals? Aren’t they the bad guys causing oxidative stress and associated damage?

Yes, when there’s too many of them. But free radicals are crucial for healing (in small amounts). So increasing your NO levels can speed up tendonitis recovery. (21,22)

In fact, my favourite food is known to increase NO levels: chocolate.

Studies show that eating 40g of dark chocolate every day improves running performance by increasing NO levels. (23) Well, I’ll take any excuse to eat more chocolate.

Other good foods for more NO are beetroot and leafy greens.

Bonus supplement: iodine

IMPORTANT: There’s no direct evidence for iodine helping with Achilles tendonitis.

But we do know that thyroid hormones affect tendonitis. Hyperthyroidism shortens Achilles tendon reflex time, and hypothyroidism prolongs it. (24)

People following a plant-based diet are at higher risk of iodine deficiency. Please make sure you’re getting enough iodine to keep your thyroid hormones stable. Personally, I supplement iodine every day.

How to heal Achilles tendonitis: 2 DIET MISTAKES

We’ve covered what to do to heal Achilles tendonitis. So here’s what you definitely shouldn’t do because it hinders recovery.

High sugar

Ever wondered why diabetics are at higher risk of Achilles tendonitis? (26)

Too much sugar in your bloodstream increases inflammation and oxidative stress, and damages your tendon cells. (25)

As if that wasn’t enough, sugar also reduces collagen synthesis and makes your tendons stiff. (27)

It’s simple: stop eating sugar and other white carbs (white bread is basically sugar), and eat more complex carbohydrates like whole grains instead.

If you’re thinking of swapping sugar for sweeteners, make sure you choose the right one. Some artificial sweeteners can lead to weight gain and increase health risks, but some are OK. Check out my top honey alternatives for natural plant-based alternatives to sugar too.

High cholesterol

High cholesterol levels increase your risk of tendon rupture by increasing oxidative stress and triggering tendon cell death. (28)

Cholesterol can also slow down tendon healing reducing your number of tendon stem cells. (26)

Focus on foods low in cholesterol and eat these cholesterol-lowering foods to keep your cholesterol levels optimal for tendon healing.

Are you at increased risk of Achilles tendonitis?

These increase your risk for Achilles tendonitis:

• Taking statins
• Diabetes
• Gout
• Rheumatoid arthritis
• Chronic kidney disease
• Taking corticosteroids (prescription anti-inflammatory medication)
• Within 6 months of taking fluoroquinolones (common antibiotics) (29,30)

The bottom line: how to heal Achilles tendonitis

Nutrition plays a critical role in healing Achilles tendonitis.

You probably can’t get all the nutrients your tendons need without supplements. I strongly recommend you take the supplements recommended to speed up Achilles tendonitis healing.

Check if you have higher needs for certain nutrients with our DNA test

References

1. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33569739/
2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23304533/
3. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6265920/
4. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30386805/
5. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18309503/
6. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31594793/
7. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28717606/
8. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29983622/
9. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31115927/
10. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27001426/
11. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30609761/
12. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34812335/
13. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31681789/
14. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29893587/
15. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29140140/
16. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29559876/
17. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23647357/
18. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27121758/
19. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25360832/
20. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33953876/
21. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22244067/
22. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22433782/
23. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28649251/
24. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8729693/
25. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31471548/
26. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30646947/
27. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28396584/
28. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32197645/
29. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27490216/
30. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31270563/