Answer:

Get her to take 500mg of Vitamin C daily for two months immediately after a fracture. This way she may be five times less likely to avoid chronic pain from setting in.

Explanation:

In a double-blind, multi-centre trial to test whether various doses of Vitamin C could prevent Complex Regional Pain Syndrome from developing after wrist fracture, patients with wrist fractures were randomly assigned to one of four groups: a no treatment placebo group, a 200 mg vitamin C group, a 500mg vitamin C group and 1500 mg vitamin C group. The three Vitamin C treatment groups took a Vitamin C tablet every day for 50 days, starting on the day they fractured their wrist or wrists.

Even though the sample group included males and females aged from 45 years , only females aged 60 years or older developed the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

In the placebo group, 10 of the 99 fractures developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. By contrast, only 2 of 118 fractures in the 1500mg Vitamin C treatment condition and 2 of 114 fractures in the 500mg vitamin C treatment condition and 4 of the 96 fractures in the 200 mg vitamin C group developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Why does taking Vitamin C help prevent chronic pain from developing in wrist fractures in the elderly?

A recent rat study suggests that Vitamin C helps the fracture to mend stronger and the higher the Vitamin C dose, the stronger then mend.

Source: J Bone Joint Surg Am. 2007 Vol 89, Issue 7, p 1424-31.