Preparing for Surgery

[Guest guest]

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 anaesthetic 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 anaesthetic

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 anesthesia, 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 paralyses 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 even 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 significantly protect the brain both

during and after surgery. Yet, surgeons often fail to apply this knowledge to

the care of their patients.