How to Protect Your Brain from Anesthesia

Two of the most frequently asked questions I get about surgery recovery is, “how do I protect my brain from anesthesia” and the other is “how do I treat brain fog after surgery?” Both are important issues to address and while the answers are not simple, there are basic things we can do to get our brain ready as well as help it recover.

Anesthesia can be wonderful. It blocks pain, dissociates us from what is happening to us in the operating room, and allows surgeons to do some pretty complex stuff to heal us. That said, it’s another part of surgery to prepare for, and again, surgeons don’t address it because they don’t really know how. Anesthesia effects can last hours, days, weeks, or longer. At the Center for Holistic Surgery, it’s something that is important to patients, their recovery, and thus important to me. And if we can do all of this holistically, even better!

Easy things to do to prepare your brain BEFORE surgery. Like most long lists in my blogs, choose five things you think you can do, then try to do 1 or 2 of them. If you can do more, great, but be sure to DO SOMETHING.

• Good sleep

• Hydrate

• No caffeine after 12pm in general and especially the day before surgery

• Eat 1-2oz of dark chocolate daily, 70% or greater cacao

• Stress control such as acupuncture, meditation, journaling, etc

• Starting probiotics a few weeks before surgery (if possible, otherwise start right away)

• Get natural light every morning, even with cloud cover

• Take a daily multivitamin

• Take vitamin D

Easy things to do to help brain recovery AFTER anesthesia.

• Continue w/ eating the dark chocolate

• Load creatine with 20g supplementation for 5 days after surgery then keep up with 5g daily (ask your doctor about this larger dosing if you have kidney disease)

• Avoid more than an hour or two of screens

• Do puzzles you find fun such as word find, crossword, scrabble, and give yourself some compassion if finding the words takes a bit more time.

• Acupuncture

• Massage

• Low sugar diets

• Hydration with electrolytes

• Continue w/ prebiotics and probiotics

• Reintroduce exercise such as walking

• Continue getting natural light daily every morning

  
  

Contact me at info@centerforholisticsurgery.com and we can find a time to chat about how I can support you to your best surgical health.