by Lawrence Wilson, MD
© January 2010, The Center For
Development
We receive many requests for information about
how to prepare for surgery using nutrition. Many also want to know what to do or take during and after
surgery as well.
In fact, nutrition can make an enormous
difference in surgical outcome.
This is known in a few hospitals that insist that all patients prepare
for surgery by taking either certain nutrients or by eating certain foods.
Nutritional help is important with surgery for
at least four reasons:
1. All
surgery is an attack or wound on the body, even if it saves your life. Recovering from wounds always requires
extra nutrients. However, for the most part, the surgical community still
ignores this research. This is
unfortunate. In my limited
experience with surgical cases, those people who are well-nourished heal far
more rapidly and thoroughly than the average person.
2. One
is always exposed to many infections during a hospital stay. Nutritional balancing can help
strengthen the body and avoid or reduce the risk of hospital infections.
3.
Surgery exposes the body to numerous drugs in most cases. These often include anesthesia drugs,
antibiotics, toxic soap and cleaning solutions, and others. Nutritional substances can help the
liver and kidneys remove these drugs faster and more effectively.
4.
Another, rarer risk of all surgery is venous stasis and blood clots, as a
result. Nutritional methods
can also be helpful to enhance circulation and perhaps even to thin the blood
slightly, if this is desired.
5. Bleeding
is a problem for some people during
and after surgery. Certain nutrients
such as vitamin C, zinc, copper and others, along with herbs such as cayenne pepper, may help prevent
excessive bleeding.
6. Some
people have difficulty with scarring after surgery. This is often related to nutritional
imbalances, particularly involving zinc and copper. Balancing body chemistry can often help prevent keloid
scarring and actually dissolve some ugly scars.
7.
Most hospital food and water is not great.
Also, one should ideally not eat a lot after surgery. The body mainly needs rest. Therefore oneÕs nutrient intake is often
lower after surgery. Enhancing
oneÕs nutrient intake before surgery is therefore helpful for the body to
reduce food cravings and enable the body to just rest peacefully after surgery,
in order to hasten healing.
A person who habitually eats an excellent
quality diet will do better, statistically, with any surgical procedure. This has been shown to be true over and
over. Those who take vitamins
generally do better, even if the supplements are quite random.
Those who rest enough do better. Also, those who go in with an excellent
attitude and confidence in their doctors also do better. So always remember these simple
preventive principles.
In fact, of course, if one lives really well,
much less surgery would be required.
This is quite obvious to me, though perhaps it is not obvious to many
people. However, taking excellent
care of yourself and resting more, for example, along with excellent eating
habits is the best surgery prevention possible.
To some degree, the body needs more of all the
nutrients. However, a few are so
critical and so deficient in large numbers of people, that we will emphasize
those in this short paper.
Kelp. Kelp functions as a
multi-mineral vegetable, basically, that comes in a convenient capsule form.
Taking three per day for a week before surgery, at the very least, would get
rid of the worst mineral deficiencies in most people. Taking it for much longer before surgery would be better, at
least for a month or two. This
would remineralize the body a little, which is helpful for all stress
conditions.
Zinc
and copper. Among these are zinc
and copper. Both these are needed
to heal wounds of all kinds. Zinc
and copper are needed for the formation of connective tissue, the main tissue
used to heal all wounds in the body.
Zinc, in particular, also helps prevent and
treat all infections, as does copper to a lesser degree. A good zinc dosage for an adult would
be 10-20 mg per day for at least two weeks prior to surgery, although any zinc
at all is better than none.
A good dosage of copper is 1-3 mg daily before,
during and after surgery for both of these. Beware of multivitamins and multiminerals that just contain
a little copper and zinc. The
problem is that other nutrients may compete with and actually interfere with
the zinc and copper, especially iron.
For this reason, we suggest specifically
supplementing with the nutrients we mention, although a multiple
vitamin-mineral product with a lot of vitamin C is probably far better than
nothing at all.
Vitamin
C. Another nutrient that is critical is
vitamin C. If just this one
nutrient were administered to all surgical patients, even just minutes before
the operation, it would help many people heal faster and much more safely. The dosage can be up to 1,000 mg daily
or even more. This will not cause
diarrhea in most people.
Vitamin C is also linked to connective tissue
healing. Indeed, one of the
symptoms of scurvy (vitamin C deficiency disease) is bleeding into the tissues,
exactly what surgeons to all they can to avoid. Bleeding is probably the number one cause of surgical
problems, with the second being infections. The order may be reversed for some delicate operations.
Vitamin C, however, helps both problems. Infections can often be prevented by
large doses of vitamin C, as many people know. It is also a very inexpensive supplement, as are zinc and
copper, that can be given orally in rather high doses without side effects. This makes it a perfect candidate for
supplementation before surgery, though it is done very little. This is a major reason for surgical
problems, as most diets today are dreadfully deficient in vitamin C.
Vitamins
A and D or cod liver oil. Other nutrients that
could be added to a pre-surgical workup are vitamin A and D. These, also, help the body fight
infection, help maintain calcium, a very important mineral needed for wound
healing and blood clotting, and these also help the body in general fight stress
and maintain balance in the wake of stressful events.
The recommended dosage of A is about 20,000 iu
or more daily. Start with at least
this amount and ideally a week, at least, before your surgery and continue all
nutrients for at least three weeks after surgery.
Vitamin D can also be taken in large doses
safely. Take at least 1,000 iu
daily for at least a week before and at least three weeks after surgery.
Bioflavinoids. Another nutrient that would be most
helpful are called vitamin P or bioflavinoids. These are needed, along with vitamin C, to strengthen cell
membranes, especially those of capillaries that are often cut during surgery.
While other nutrients would also be superb,
especially all the trace minerals and a few more vitamins, these are the most
critical ones.
Bioflavinoids is a group of nutrients with names
such as quercitin, rutin, hesperidan and others. They are usually sold together and one can take at least
1000 mg daily for a week before and two weeks after surgery.
Colored fruits, vegetables and grains contain
many bioflavinoids. Such foods are
blue corn chips, carrots and other orange vegetables, yellow vegetables and
others.
Certain nutrients, if given in excessive
amounts, are not helpful for surgery.
This may be one reason surgeons stay away from all nutrients, though it
is a silly reason. Let us examine
these quickly.
Vitamin
E. Too much vitamin E can cause more
bleeding in some people. It does
this by acting as a powerful anti-oxidant, which is normally a good idea. During surgery, however, the reaction
of the tissues to the knife is such that oxygen is present and this enables the
blood vessels to clot.
Therefore, anything that interferes with this
could, theoretically, assist the body as an anti-oxidant and therefore slow the
clotting of the wound. Having said
this, a little vitamin E, up to 200 iu/day, is fine and, in fact,
recommended. Higher doses,
however, are not useful or helpful.
Nattokinase. Another nutrient to watch is the use of nattokinase. This is eaten in Japan as natto, a very
popular food. It is now sold as
the enzyme, nattokinase, in many stores in America and around the world.
Like vitamin E, it is a wonderful product to prevent or reduce blood clots. Here again, however, too much would not
be helpful during surgery or post-surgically.
If one is taking this nutrient all the time, we recommend
stopping before surgery. If one is
not taking it, do not start just before a surgical procedure of any kind, even
the removal of a tooth, for example.
The body adapts to all the foods and nutrients we give to
it. However, this takes time, so
do not add vitamin E in amounts greater than about 200 iu daily or nattokinase
at all just before a surgical procedure.
Another area in which nutrition can be so helpful is in
reducing surgical infections.
These are so common that in many cases antibiotics and other drugs are
given automatically to minimize them.
However, as many readers know, the antibiotics just add
another layer of toxicity to the surgery, slowing complete recovery and in some
cases causing yeast and other infections that are as bad or worse.
For infections, one can take colloidal silver. Before a dangerous operation, anyone CAN
take colloidal silver as a precaution.
One should not need regular antibiotics, in this case, although most
doctors might insist upon it, which is okay.
The dosage, whenever one uses colloidal silver, is about 2
tablespoons daily for a few days, at least, and up to a week or two. I prefer a good quality commercial
silver product, not a home made product, that that is less than 100 ppm,
although all of it is good. If you
use the higher dosage than 100 ppm, then take much less, such as a few full
droppers daily or perhaps 1 teaspoon or so daily.
GIVE YOUR OWN
BLOOD BEFORE SURGERY IF THERE IS ANY CHANCE YOU WILL NEED BLOOD
If you may need blood, always give your own blood
preferably, before surgery rather than using just anyoneÕs blood. Blood transfusions always carry some
risk, especially today when there are many infections in the people. Blood also carries toxic metals,
parasites and other problems at times.
These cannot be filtered out.
Another alternative if blood is needed are some of the other
types of blood products, instead of whole blood, when it is possible to use it.
If you may need a lot of blood, try to find a friend or
relative with your blood type whom you know if fairly healthy, and ask that
person to donate blood before surgery so it is there if you need it. Donating blood is a wonderful gesture
of friendship. Although it
depletes the body a little, it is far better than accepting just any blood from
a blood bank today.
Diet. Post surgery recovery should
also be uneventful if one eats lightly, but very healthfully. Carrot juice, wheat grass juice and
plenty of chicken soup and vegetables should be the main part of your
diet. Do not eat heavily after any
surgery. Also, avoid all junk
food, sugar, ice cream, and the like.
Other important things are rest as much as possible, get out
in the sun and get as much fresh air as possible without becoming chilled. Try to sleep with a window open at
least a crack, for example, and try to be outside in the sun each day, even if it
is only for a few minutes.
Drinking water. Try to have a friend bring in your drinking water,
preferably distilled or spring water only. Hospitals use tap water, which contains fluoride, chlorine
and many other toxins. Be sure to
drink plenty of water, rather than eat a lot of food for a few days. A fast of a day or two is not a bad
idea after a major surgery.
Quiet, peace and rest. Try to get as much rest after
surgery as possible. Do not allow
a lot of visitors for a day or two, and preferably do not allow nurses to wake
you up at all hours of the night.
Try to be in a quiet room, preferably with some sunshine.
An advocate or
helper. Any time one is in the hospital, if
possible have a friend or partner read your chart, talk with the nurses and
oversee everything that goes on related to your case. This is vital, at times. Hospitals make many mistakes, unfortunately. This can be giving incorrect
medication, or worse. The causes
are overwork, fatigued personnel and general ill health of doctors, nurses and
others. For these reasons, it is
very wise to have a friend and advocate hover over the doctors and nurses
whenever one must be in the hospital.
Removing
anesthesia drugs and other toxins from the body. A very important step after a long operation, or any
operation in many cases, is to attempt to remove the anesthesia residue as fast
as possible.
If I had to recommend a single remedy, it would be to use a
near infrared sauna daily for at least a year. If one cannot use a near infrared lamp sauna, then use
whatever sauna you can.
Even a hot tub or hot baths will help remove some
poisons. However, I donÕt like these
as much as a sauna because the chemicals from the water will find their way
into the body. Also, the water
must be very hot in order to induce sweating. It is usually much easier to sweat in a sauna.
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