The Rapid Recovery Handbook

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Chapter One

At the Cutting Edge of Surgical Care

. . . and not until the wound heals
and the scar disappears,
do we begin to discover where we are,
and that nature is
one and continuous everywhere.
—Henry David Thoreau

Why do some people seem to recover so much faster than others who have the same surgery under the same circumstances? How much does your own state of health influence the healing process postsurgery, and what can you do to make sure that your recovery unfolds as smoothly and rapidly as possible?

Some of what affects how tissues heal has to do with the surgery itself—specifically, the type of procedure, the surgical technique, the operating room environment, and most of all your surgeon’s level of expertise. Those factors largely depend on your surgical team, though, as we’ll see in chapter 5, you can request various environmental conditions to be in place during your operation. But there’s much more to it than that. A number of practical steps can be taken before, during, and after the procedure to increase your self-healing ability. Among the starting points are some simple lifestyle choices, including the kinds of foods you eat and the dietary supplements you use before and after the operation.

All too often, the importance of nutrition has received short shrift in mainstream medical practice, though there are signs of change on the horizon. In a report titled "Fit for Surgery," published in the December 2004 issue of Surgeon, experts from six European countries and the United States addressed the issue of how best to prepare patients for surgery. Malnutrition was placed at the top of the list of factors that can impede recovery after surgery. "Malnutrition is common among hospitalized patients and in the community, while patients’ nutritional status often declines during hospital stay," the report stated. "Both malnutrition and weight loss are associated with alterations in cellular physiology and organ function, which are of importance for the surgical patient. Preoperative malnutrition compromises surgical outcome while preoperative weight loss can lead to increased postoperative morbidity and mortality." The report went on to note that nutritional assessments are rarely done on people facing surgery, despite the fact that malnutrition is common among hospitalized patients. Moreover, the authors noted: "In order to ensure that patients undergoing elective procedures are ‘fit for surgery,’ all members of the multidisciplinary team should understand that adequate nutrition contributes to a successful surgical outcome."1

Of course, making sure that you have sufficient or adequate nutrition to handle the rigors of surgery is key. In The Rapid Recovery Handbook, however, we’re more interested in optimum nutrition than in adequate nutrition. We will teach you about the best possible combinations of foods, nutrients, and nutriceuticals (including herbal supplements), for maximizing your healing potential. To reinforce and enhance the impact of this nutrition, we’ll explore mind-body techniques, therapeutic exercise, physical manipulation, energy medicine, and other easily accessible, noninvasive tools that have been shown to support optimal wound repair. These considerations, as you will learn, can be of tremendous benefit. They will enable you to go through surgery with greater ease and comfort, and to recover as fast as is humanly possible after your operation.

The Many Flavors and Challenges of Surgery

Surgery is the medical specialty that treats diseases or injuries through operations or what physicians refer to as "procedures." Many surgeries are aimed at removing or repairing a part of the body, or at establishing whether a disease is present. Surgery can also involve transplantation of organs, tissues, or cells from one site to another within the same individual, or from one patient to another of the same species or even of different species. Other surgeries focus on problems that develop in the bones, joints, and ligaments of the human body. Still others are performed in order to repair or restore body parts to look normal, or to change a body part to look better. And the list goes on.

Many surgeries are either lifesaving or at least potentially lifesaving procedures. Consider, for example, the removal of a large tumor that is impinging on a vital organ. Curative surgery is regarded as the primary treatment for most cancers. Today, more-conservative (less-invasive) surgeries are aimed at removing tumors while preserving as much normal tissue and function as possible. These sophisticated procedures offer the greatest chance for cure for common cancers like those of the breast, prostate, and colon—as long as the cancer has not yet spread to other parts of the body.

Or consider the miracle of coronary bypass, which involves using a piece of vein or artery to bypass a blockage in a coronary artery in order to prevent heart attacks or to relieve chest pain due to reduced blood flow to heart muscles. For quite some time now, cardiovascular disease has been the leading cause of death in the United States, and today more than 60 percent of cardiovascular-related deaths are linked with coronary artery disease. With the increasing size of the middle-aged and elderly population, more bypass operations will need to be performed on people confronting this disease.

Other examples of major surgery include brain surgery, hysterectomy, mastectomy, joint reconstruction, joint replacement, organ transplants, or bone marrow transplants. Regardless of which type you’re facing, it usually promises to be a significant event that can severely tax your body’s healing resources. Substantial risks may be involved, and our clinical experience has shown us over and over again that the surgically treated body can greatly benefit from targeted support to help minimize these risks. Major surgery also tends to result in extensive tissue loss as well as a major restructuring of tissue. Your body must be sufficiently healthy to mount an efficient healing response to such damage.

A number of setbacks or complications can occur after major surgery or with a series of operations—setbacks like heart problems and postoperative depression. Other common problems include pain, nausea, decreased bowel and bladder function, lack of mobility, or immune dysfunction . . . .

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Excerpted from The Rapid Recovery Handbook: Your Complete Guide to Faster Healing after Surgery by Elizabeth Motyka, Tom Motyka, M. Nathaniel Mead
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.