Postoperative Supplements That Aid Healing

Whether you are getting major surgery like a heart transplant or a surgery to remove your appendix, there is a lot to consider when it comes to after surgery care. To varying degrees, the healing process is almost more important than the procedure itself, because if your body doesn’t heal properly you could be prone to infection or worse.

In addition to following your doctor’s recommendations, finding the right kinds of Postoperative supplements that aid healing which specifically match your needs can make all the difference.

Postoperative Supplements Can Make a Difference

There are many reasons to take postoperative supplements, ranging from your personal belief system and believing in more of a natural edge to healing, to actual necessity depending on what your body has had to go through.For example, if you had a significant amount of blood loss, your doctor may prescribe iron supplements for a while to get you regulated.

The entire point of postoperative supplements is to provide your body with a consistent cushion of vitamins and minerals which, over time, can help to heal your scars faster, improve your immune system function, even aid digestion as often things can get blocked up after you have gone through the trauma often experienced with surgery.

Let’s take a look at the things that surgery supplements can do for your body. You’ll likely see why they can help, and why you should make sure to have them handy once you’re done at the hospital.

Faster Healing

Research shows that different kinds of supplements, when taken over time and right after surgery can aid in how quickly you heal. Faster healing takes place when inflammation goes down, when circulation is working properly, when nerve endings can more quickly connect, or even supplements that aid the heart or lungs in their processes to prevent you from getting further disease. Postoperative Supplements are highly recommended in each of these cases.

Scar Reduction

Many who have surgery come out of it concerned that they will be or feel disfigured for life, that their skin will never look the same. As a primary concern, it is something that doctors and friends as well as the family of the patient need to be aware of.

A lot of healing is mental, which means if you feel fear every time you look at your body as a result of a scar, it is going to make the healing process more difficult. There are many kinds of postoperative healing supplements that aid healing with regards to scar reduction and they have been proven to help.

Reduced Chance Of Infection

Another extremely important aspect of postoperative care is focused on the reduced chance of infection. Constantly. After surgery the risk of infection is incredibly high. If you get an infection after surgery the risks are endless.

If an infection gets into your bloodstream treatment can be extremely aggressive. Keeping the area clean and focusing on immune system strengthening postoperative supplements will take care of this for you almost 100% of the time.

Signs That You Are Getting A Postoperative Infection Include:

• An infection which happens within 30 days of the surgery
• Excess draining in the surgery site
• Prolonged pain and tenderness in the surgery area.
• An abscess under or around the stitching of the surgery area

Infection Risk Factors

There are certain risk factors that should be taken into account when you are choosing the right type of postoperative supplements, as certain health concerns will play a role into how susceptible you are to infection.

These risk factors include:

• Advanced age
• Diabetes
• Staying in the hospital for a long time
• Length of time the surgery took
• If there are drains present
• Obesity

Supplements For The Aiding Postoperative Healing

There are many different kinds of supplements for the aiding of postoperative healing. Remember that you should talk to your doctor before taking any kind of supplements after surgery.

Below you will find a list of the most often used as well as the most important to the process.

Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera comes from the cactus – like plant Aloe Vera, which grows primarily in the Caribbean and southern US. When you break open a part of the Aloe Vera plant it has a natural, jelly like substance which is often used directly on the skin of the affected or injured area.

How Can Aloe Vera Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Aloe Vera is one of the top most used postoperative supplements. Aloe Vera has been used for centuries to cure all manner of ailments. Specifically related to surgery, it heals skin as good as any pharmaceutical product would. It is used for the treatment of burns and has been known to be a healing mouthwash and ointment for healing scars.

Arnica

Arnica is a plant that comes from the daisy family and has yellow flowers. It is native to areas which are cooler and normally the northern hemisphere.

How Can Arnica Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Most preparations for Arnica are in a gel like form and can be rubbed on the skin to provide relief for bruises, as well as sore muscles. Many use this in the place of their normal ‘Icy Hot’ product because it gives a cooling and then calming sensation that many find relieving.

Arnica doesn’t just make a bruise feel better, it also helps to re-disburse the blood at the surface level of the skin, which helps bruising go away over time. As this is an important aspect of healing, Arnica becomes priceless in post-operative recovery.

Bromelain

Often mysterious and misunderstood, Bromelain is a supplement commonly extracted from both the juice of the pineapple and the actual stem itself.

How Can Bromelain Help Post Surgery Recovery?

The benefit behind Bromelain help for post-surgery recovery revolves around the collagen synthesis that takes place. When a wound heals after surgery, your body is somewhat weak. It needs the extra boost that Bromelain has to offer.  Usually after surgery you will be prompted by your doctor to take up to 1000 mg twice a day, which you can usually get from any health store. Bromelain helps to relieve swelling and is also known to help with swelling in the nose and sinuses as well.

Centella Asiatica

Asiatica, also known as Centella Asiatica is a perennial plant native to Asian Wetlands. This particular herb is in the parsley family and doesn’t really have a smell or taste, which is nice when you think about how sensitive your nose might be after surgery.

How Can Centella Asiatica Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Asiatica, also known as Gotu kola is capable of treating all manner of conditions. As a result it is has wide spread usage all over Indonesia as well as China and surrounding areas. Centella Asiatica has been used for thousands of years to assist in wound healing, clear out skin conditions such as leprosy as well as eczema and psoriasis and helps to clear the mind, which after surgery can be fuzzy.

Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF)

The Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF) refers to the nucleotide-peptide complex that comes from chlorella extract via hot water.

How Can Chlorella Growth Factor Help Post Surgery Recovery?

When it comes to postoperative supplements, this is one of the best. When you're just getting out of surgery, you are tired, in pain, frustrated, and usually not very hungry at all. When you are trying to heal, getting your energy up can be really difficult and complicated.

With Chlorella Growth Factor (CGF) you will find yourself easily able to overcome exhaustion and overtime increase your energy levels. You will have a happier outlook and feel more pain free by decreasing or even stopping inflammation in the surgery site because of Chlorella Growth Factor.

In addition, it helps you to be hungry again which will give you the fuel that you need to truly heal.

CoQ10

CoQ10 is a substance that is found throughout the cells, in every part of the body. It is capable of producing energy that the body needs to maintain itself, healthy cells, organs and tissues.

You can get healthy doses of CoQ10 by consuming various kinds of food, and is higher in certain meats, such as liver, hearts as well as kidneys, but also in more commonly eaten food products such as various fish, like sardines and mackerels. But can also be found in peanuts and beef.

How Can CoQ10 Help Post Surgery Recovery?

CoQ10 helps post-surgery recovery because it aids in rebuilding cell walls and protects the skeletal muscles in the body. There is also evidence that shows that it helps strengthen certain parts of the heart, particularly in women, in order to fight against heart attacks. If you are going to go through any kind of heart related or muscle related surgery, your doctor is likely to recommend a supplement of the CoQ10 to aid in the healing that your heart is going to need to go through and they will usually suggest that you keep that up for up to 10 days depending on the severity of the surgery and the variances of how diminished your heart might have been during surgery.

Gotu Kola

In history, Gotu Kola has been used to cure many different kinds of ailments, and is one of the oldest in existence. For postoperative surgery it is going to be able to help with pretty much anything you can imagine you might need it for.

How Can Gotu Kola Help Post Surgery Recovery?

If you are experiencing a fatigued mind after having had to experience a lot of pain medication post surgery or if you are having stomach upsets or skin issues, Gotu Kola is a Go To supplement which your doctor is likely to prescribe. It also prevents against blood clotting which is something that you need to be careful of no matter what kind of surgery you have done. It also helps to lower fevers, so if you have gotten an infection despite your best efforts, you can use this handy supplement to calm and lower that temperature.

Probiotics

Probiotics are living bacteria that help keep your digestive tract healthy and make things easier for you overall. Probiotics are becoming all of the rage in modern times, primarily because our bodies have a hard time digesting as a result of the food that we are eating and the stress that consumes our lives.

How Can Probiotics Help Post Surgery Recovery?

After surgery, not only is everything inflamed, but many of the medications the doctor is going to put you on to help you heal will in fact cause you to be ‘backed up’ so to speak. Probiotics are living bacteria that help keep your digestive tract healthy and make things easier for you overall.

Protein

Protein represents food sources which are composed of beans as well as beef, chicken or turkey, seafood as well as peas, eggs and nuts.

How Can Protein Help Post Surgery Recovery?

When one thinks of postoperative supplements, one usually imagines capsules filled with natural remedies. And while it is true that you can get protein supplements, most times you don’t have to because the protein you need is going to be in the food that you are eating.

After surgery you may experience weight loss, fatigue and your muscles may become weak from being too long in bed or as a result of the location of the surgery in general.  An increase in protein after surgery will help with Muscle growth, as well as help regenerate cells which have broken down.

Quercetin

Quercetin is a supplement that you can get from foods, fruits, drinks as well as other supplements and from grains, leaves and hearty vegetables.

How Can Quercetin Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Quercetin is an often underestimated gem of a supplement. Not many have heard of it at all, yet it helps with pretty much everything you can imagine could happen after surgery.

Quercetin reduces swelling, inflammation and therefore pain. It acts as an immune system booster because as we all know, the hospital can often be a grimy, germ ridden place. This postoperative supplement also thins the blood so it helps with issues of the heart.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is required for cell growth in general, particularly when it comes to the growth of healthy bones and protein recuperation. Vitamin A can be found all over the human diet. It is considered a pro-vitamin and is found in dairy, fish, poultry and beef products.

How Can Vitamin A Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Research has shown that having extra Vitamin A supplements as a part of your post operative diet greatly improves the speed at which your connective tissue grows and is healed. This is because it promotes collagen and tissue synthesis and creates a habitable environment for new blood vessels to thrive. Vitamin A also helps with post-surgery recovery because it strengthens the immune system and brain function.

Vitamin B

Vitamin B can be found in meats, cheese, eggs, and poultry. Only in recent times is it finally being recognized by the medical world to be beneficial for postoperative supplemental purposes. Vitamin B is now being shown to also help with inflammation but continuing to patch together nerve endings after being cut open during a surgery.

How Can Vitamin B Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Vitamin B, particularly in a complex is designed to help heal wounds faster as a result of the protein synthesis derived from the animal proteins it comes from. It helps really significant times of inflammation which sometime can happen with an absess and the like. If you use Vitamin B5 it will help if you start using it immediately after the wound is created. Vitamin B helps Post Surgery recovery as well by filling you up with lots of energy.

VItamin C

Vitamin C can be found in many places, most specifically in citrus and other fruits, as well as vegetables.

How Can Vitamin C Help Post Surgery Recovery?

When getting any kind of surgical procedure, vitamin C is almost completely depleted. As a result it is often recommended by your doctor to take from up to 1000mg as a part of your routine after surgery up to potentially 3000mg. This helps to keep you healthy, strong, and vital, and makes sure that you don’t get sick after you get home and start to be around the regular, germ filled environment.

Vitamin D

Vitamin D is provided by the Sun. Supplements are taken for various reasons. It helps in a lot of different ways, from elevating the mood to improving muscle mass. If you live in areas that don’t get a lot of sun, chances are your doctor is going to prescribe some extra Vitamin D at one point or another.

How Can Vitamin D Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Vitamin D is something that can be helpful in postoperative surgery because it encourages the tissue in the body to be strong and to regenerate consistently as you heal. It also makes you feel happier and less susceptible to the florescent lighting that creates a kind of doldrums feeling if you are in the hospital for long stays.

Zinc

Zinc is a silvery white type of substance which is processed into supplemental form which makes it safe for human consumption.

How Can Zinc Help Post Surgery Recovery?

Zinc helps with post surgery recovery because it increases the rate at which you heal after surgery significantly. It plays a crucial role in reducing inflammation and preventing bacteria from growing in the surgery site. It speeds up the metabolism and balances blood sugar. All of which is of key importance when healing after a surgery.

Other Ways To Improve Your Recovery

After surgery there is a lot to think about, and your doctor might be prescribing all manner of medication and your friends mention all kinds of treatments, but in the end only you know what is right for you. Here are some other ways to improve your recovery that are recommended. Some of these seem like common sense, but they do get lost in all of the prescribing and confusion.

Sleep

An often forgotten but vital part of the healing process is lying flat in bed and getting some good old fashioned sleep. In this day and age we become really conditioned to always be up and doing something. While some healing does involve physical therapy and activity, it is equally important for you to give your body the time it needs to rest and recuperate. Too much too soon can cause further injury.

Fluids:

After surgery you will find that you are significantly dehydrated. Most pain medications are known to have this side effect. Therefore drink as much water as you can, even moreso than you think you need to, so that you can get back to your regular life.

Things To Avoid After Surgery

Caffeine

Caffeine should be avoided after surgery because the entire goal after leaving the hospital is healing. If you are jittery from the caffeine, you will likely not rest. Not only that, caffeine causes your blood to be thin, and in conjunction with other blood thinning medication you might be taking, it could be extremely dangerous. If you have heart surgery, caffeine can cause heart palpitations or fluttering.

Nicotine

Although it should go without saying, nicotine is something that should be avoided after surgery. Nicotine the chemical has a lot of it’s own side effects, but if you are getting your nicotine through smoking it will thicken the blood, which can cause blood clots, it hurts your lungs and lowers the immune system. Exactly the opposite of what you should be going for after surgery.

Your Health is In Your Hands

Always remember that when you leave the hospital your healing process begins. Postoperative supplements that aid healing are there for you at any time, right at your fingertips. You can even get them shipped to you if you wanted, so that you don’t have to strain yourself. Try to get sleep, lay flat, take supplements that your doctor approves which will help get you back up on your feet sooner.