Preparing for Surgery

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From Health & Nutrition Secrets To Save Your Life,

By Russell Blaylock, M.D.,.

 

Preparing for Surgery

_www.russellblaylockmd.com_ (http://www.russellblaylockmd.com)

 

PREPARING FOR SURGERY:

 

Most surgery is elective, that is, you have time to prepare yourself

nutritionally for the inevitable trauma that accompanies any sort of invasive

procedure. If you have not followed a good program of nutrition or taken

supplements, then you will need a minimum of three weeks to a month to prepare.

 

Most important - and no matter what kind of surgery you are having - is to

build up your magnesium stores. Magnesium is one of the most important

protective factors for the brain and heart. It also improves blood flow

through

every organ and tissue, improves pulmonary function, kidney function, and

prevents postoperative blood clots from forming in the legs.

 

You may say: If I am having a hernia repaired, why do I need to worry about

my brain or heart? The answer in all cases is anesthesia. While

complications due to anesthetization are much less frequent than they were

forty years

ago, they do still happen. If your heart stops, one major complication is

brain damage secondary to a loss of oxygen to the brain. Magnesium will

significantly protect your brain during such events. It will also protect your

heart against irregular rhythms.

 

One of the most frightening complications following surgery is pulmonary

embolism usually from blood clots originating in veins in the pelvis or legs.

Physicians have devised all sorts of ways to prevent this deadly complication,

from small doses of heparin after surgery to special self-inflating leg

wraps. Several studies have shown that magnesium alone can significantly

reduce

the risk of such problems. I have never had a patient develop a pulmonary

embolism after surgery since I began using magnesium supplementation in my

patients.

 

If your surgeon is a reasonable person, and will agree to add one or two

grams of magnesium to your IV fluids during surgery, you will have maximum

protection. You might also suggest they add a healthy dose of vitamins to your

IV

fluids as well.

 

Anesthesia Precautions

 

Several recent reports have noted that nitrous oxide gas can precipitate a

severe fall in vitamin B12 levels, producing disorientation and acute-onset

B12 deficiency symptoms including a loss of sensation in the limbs. For this

reason, it is vital to take 2,000 ug of methylcobalamin supplements daily for

at least a month before surgery.

 

Many anesthetic gases are fluorine-based. Studies have shown that the

fluoride may produce significant injury to neurons: in fact, the potential for

danger is even greater because you are under stress of surgery, your immune

system is suppressed, and the gas easily penetrates the brain.

 

The main way to counteract the toxic effects of fluorine-based anesthetic

gases is to increase your calcium intake. Again, if your surgeon will agree,

have him or her put 500 mg. of calcium chloride in your IV solution during

surgery. Fluoride interferes with calcium, leading to heart irregularity. The

extra calcium will counteract this effect.

 

It is also important to have a high level of antioxidants in your cells and

plasma during anesthesia, to protect your cells from hypoxia and ischemia

(low oxygen and decreased blood flow). While these problems may not be the

result of the anesthesia, they can result from large blood losses during

surgery.

 

AFTER YOUR SURGERY

 

Once back in your room, you struggle to make out these clustered shapes

about you through blurred, goo-filled eyes, and attempt to speak. But, all you

hear is raspy crowing. The shock of waking up from deep anesthesia is

definitely something you have to experience to appreciate.

 

Depending on the type of surgery you have had, food will appear on your tray

that day, or many moons later. In the meantime, you will be fed

evidence-based sugar water. (Don't go to the hospital and ask your doctor if

your IV is

evidence based sugar water. It will only confuse them.)

 

The first day will be one of maximum stress. Pain will, most likely, be

intense, and your entire body will be struggling to return to normal. As a

result of surgery and anesthesia, your immune system will be profoundly

suppressed, and will remain so for more than two weeks. Your liver will be

stressed

from all the medications, as well as the anesthiia, it has had to detoxify.

If your detoxification capacity was low to begin with, it will be even worse

after surgery.

 

For major surgery, it will take anywhere from forty-eight hours to three

days for your GI tract to crank up again. The pain and surgical manipulation

temporarily paralyzes the intestines. Once it wakes up, and the doctor is

satisfied with the music he hears through his stethoscope, he will start you

off

on some liquids. Unfortunately, these liquids are often broth - another name

for MSG and hydrolyzed protein.

 

In the liquid form, MSG is rapidly absorbed, instantly raising your blood

glutamate levels. From your blood it enters your brain making you feel

confused and disoriented. Your thoughts are jumbled and you may have a sense

of

racing thoughts that won't stop. In addition, the MSG will disrupt your GI

tract, making you nauseous and possibly producing diarrhea. Some people will

even experience severe intestinal cramping. Your evidence based doctor will

assume your symptoms are just the result of surgery or anesthesia.

 

As if that isn't bad enough, the high glutamate will stimulate the glutamate

receptors in your pancreas causing a rush of insulin, which can produce a

profound hypoglycemic response that will leave you trembling, intensely hungry,

and profusely sweating and may also make concentration difficult. The nurse

will call your evidence-based doctor, who will then pull something out of

his hat to explain it away and satisfy the nurse so she will leave him alone.

 

The high glutamate level will also increase your pain by stimulating pain

receptors in the spinal cord. This will require more pain medication, which

will further suppress your immunity. (All pain medications suppress immunity.)

If you receive blood, your immunity will be profoundly suppressed. This is

because transfusions stimulate generation of the eicosanoid, PGE2. Multiple

transfusions can suppress immunity to the same degree seen in AIDS cases.

 

Because of the stress of surgery, your body has been depleted of a

significant store of B vitamins, as well as several minerals. Magnesium

depletion,

secondary to high rates of IV infusions, long-term poor dietary intake, and

stress, can lead to multiple complications. One problem, confirmed in several

case reports, is the precipitation of severe confusions, disorientation, and

even come secondary to magnesium loss following surgery. Recovery usually

occurs following magnesium-replacement therapy.

 

Magnesium is especially important to those who undergo neurosurgical,

cardiac or vascular operations. One big problem cardiovascular surgeons face

is a

dramatic magnesium-level drop following use of the cardiac pump. This

greatly increases the risk of fatal cardiac arrhythmia and neurological

complications. Most cardiovascular surgeons are aware of this and make

attempts to

correct the problem during and after surgery.

 

Some of my cardiovascular-surgeon friends have told me that it is actually

very difficult to replace magnesium once it begins its precipitous drop.l

This is because the magnesium in the tissues, where most magnesium resides, is

extremely low long before the patient arrives for surgery: the surgeon is

then forced to play catch-up. To prevent this complication, you should start

magnesium replacement long before surgery.

 

Unfortunately, it may take as long as six months to replace magnesium by

oral supplementation. The only solution is to have magnesium given in an IV

before surgery. Since serum levels of magnesium are an unreliable measure, the

doctor will have to check urinary levels of magnesium. When a large

spillover persists, your tissues should be saturated with the mineral.

 

Very few neurosurgeons are aware of the need for magnesium during surgery,

even though an incredible amount of research demonstrates that magnesium is

one of the most powerful and important brain protectants known. Low magnesium

greatly increases excitotoxicity, free-radical generation, and the risk of

seizures in neurosurgical patients. And, as we have seen, low magnesium is

common in the healthy population and evn more common in the unhealthy

population.

 

Steroids and diuretics - both mainstays of neurosurgeon - cause profound

magnesium depletion. I have seen patients being given several grams of

steroids

and large doses of powerful diuretics for prolonged periods of time, in an

effort to combat brain swelling. The doctors were not even aware that their

treatment was making the situation much worse.

 

Most neurosurgeons also fail to provide their patients with nutrient

supplementation, despite the fact that their own journals carry numerous

articles

about free radicals, lipid peroxidation and brain protection. There is

abundant evidence that a combination of flavonoids, magnesium, selenium, zinc

and

the antioxidant vitamins can significant protect the brain both during and

after surgery. Yet, surgeons often fail to apply this knowledge to the care of

their patients.

 

 

 

 

 

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