Here we cover ten tips to prepare yourself for cancer surgery, looking at what you might do before to strengthen your body, and what you might do afterwards to reduce swelling, combat pain, and even reduce the risk of spread.
Surgery can be daunting but there are definitely things you can do to manage your way through it without major issues and side-effects.
1. Ask: Be clear what your surgery entails, how long it lasts, likely side- effects, the medications you will be given and will need afterwards.
2. Modify your Diet: Prior to surgery you may be advised to change your diet. You might aim to reduce high blood pressure with foods such as beetroot and pomegranate. You should certainly aim to lose a little excess weight if you have it, and eat healthily. Avoid sugar and saturated fat, which both compromise the immune system; avoid alcohol, quit smoking and instead nourish yourself with plenty of fruit, vegetables, nuts and seeds and olive oil and fish oils.
3. Boost your immune system:
a) Take a multi-strain probiotic before and after surgery.
b) Take Essiac, or Grape Seed extract or beta-glucans
4. Exercise will also help you reduce blood pressure (if you can do it). Consider doing yoga to encourage core strength and calm your body.
5. Meditation: In the USA, research from the New York Presbyterian Hospital showed that those patients who meditated before surgery lost 40% less blood than those who did not.
6. Heal your body:
a. Take a Total Vitamin E – all 4 tocopherols and all 4 tocotrienols – to help you heal quicker. It is also an antibiotic. Take from two weeks before until about 6 weeks after. It works!
b. Buy some Aloe Vera gel 99.9% pure (or use the real thing if you grow it!). After the would has joined, you can gently rub it on the scars – it acts to kill microbes and it will help you heal better, and reduce scaring.
c. Will you be in pain after the operation and for how long? Arnica contains chemicals shown to reduce swelling, decrease pain and act as antibiotics. Hemp oil with at least 60% CBD content has been approved by the Health Authorities for pain relief.
7. Heal your gut.
The antibiotics you will surely have will make a major dent in the volume of your good gut bacteria; you may even lose certain strains forever. With the good bacteria compromised, both yeasts and pathogen levels will rise. These can compromise your immune system, increase toxin levels, cause fatigue, gut issues, mouth ulcers and more.
a. Two days after the operation start to take a yeast killer such as Oregano oil (2 x 150 mg per day) – as a pill or by rubbing Essential Oil on your wrists. Continue this for 8-12 weeks.
b. Also take Artemisinin (Sweet Wormwood), 200 mg a day before bed for 10 days. Then have 10 days off, and repeat. In all take artemisinin for 5 rounds of 10 days on, 10 days off.
c. About 6 weeks after surgery, start eating probiotic foods to replenish lost gut bacteria more quickly – a little unpasteurised cheese, kefir products (UK – Chuckling goat), apple cider vinegar, sauerkraut, kombucha, tempeh.
8.. Prevent infections: Bioactive compounds like pau d’arco, garlic, ginger root, goldenseal, berberine, cloves and olive leaf can attack and kill infections. You don’t have to have more drugs.
9. Boactive compounds that can help you recover:
a. Natural compounds like echinacea, cat’s claw, astragalus, essiac will boost the immune system.
b. Melatonin will help you sleep
c. Ashwagandha, frankincense, curcumin are natural anti-inflammatory compounds.
d. Foods such as olive oil, fish oils, berries, apples, carrots, chicory, onions, nuts and seeds, and red grapes can boost good gut bacteria and in turn boost the immune system.
e. There is some research showing quercetin and bromelain can reduce swelling and bruising. You can take before and after surgery.
f. Calendula can be taken orally or used as a cream. There is research that shows it is very beneficial after surgery - it helps with healing and it is an antiseptic and antibiotic that can help reduce the risk of infections and even MRSA.
In our best-selling book, ‘Everything you need to know to Help you Beat cancer’, we have more suggestions and specifically questions you should be asking your doctors.
Go to: Everything you need to know to help you beat cancer Book Reviews.
10. Antihistamines may stop spread - There is research that clearly evidences that antihistamines such as Cimetidine or Loratadine can reduce the risk of cancer spread following surgery, even doubling survival times in cancer patients.
Go to: Cimetidine and other anti-histamines can increase survival times