Prepare your body for surgery the holistic way
Whether it’s a tooth extraction or a hip replacement, surgery can put your body through a lot of physical stress so we want to be in top condition before entering the hospital doors.
We often think about the recovery phase and how we need to take care of ourselves during this time. But you can start now by thinking prehab as well as rehab. What you do now, before your surgery can improve your chances of recovery and reduce the chances of any complications.
Ayurvedic texts mention pre-operative procedures including detoxifying the body in the days before surgery. This includes various purging procedures such as abhyanga massage and sauna therapy.
While it’s not exactly an Ayurvedic protocol for pre-op, here is my take on preparing the mind and body for surgery using Ayurvedic principles of a healthy lifestyle with modern evidence:
At least two weeks before surgery:
Get 7-8 hours sleep per night – Sleep is regenerative and reparative for our body.
Eat real whole food – Real food will improve your immunity, help your body to fight infection, and promote tissue healing. Include vegetables and fruit (full of antioxidants), good quality protein (building blocks) and some complex carbohydrates (energy).
Cut out junk food, refined sugar and refined carbohydrates – These put your body into a state of inflammation, the complete opposite of what we need before heading in for surgery.
Drink water – Avoid dehydration and possibly reduce the experience of headaches and nausea in the recovery period.
Avoid alcohol – Our blood becomes thinner when we consume alcohol and this can lead to complications during and after surgery. Alcohol also blocks the absorption of vital vitamins and minerals.
Stop smoking – As well as impacting our respiratory health, smoking reduces wound healing and impacts our blood circulation.
Manage your stress – We want to bring down our cortisol and inflammatory marker levels so that we create an environment that helps recovery.
Pranayama – Breathing exercises improve your lung health prior to surgery. We need strong lungs to help us recover quickly from anaesthesia and have our lungs breath for themselves.
Get regular exercise – People who do regular exercise prior to surgery spend less time in hospital post-surgery (Waite et al., 2017).
Plan ahead – If this is an elective surgery and you have time to prepare, call your friends and family and make arrangements for someone to drive you home, plan a few meals ahead etc.
Of course additional factors come into play with different health needs. For example, if you are diabetic, you’d want to have good blood glucose control. Poorly controlled diabetes can lead to slower recovery and a higher chance of infection.
If you’d like some support before upcoming surgery, get in touch. What makes Illuminate Health different is that you will have a consultation with a qualified Ayurvedic Health & Wellbeing Practitioner who also happens to be a registered nurse of 12 years.
