Keeping Healthy for Heart Surgery

This morning I consulted a naturopath about enhancing our health this month to try and avoid the plagues of flu season before heart surgery. She gave me many suggestions.

Avoidance
We need to limit our sugar. "One of sugar's major drawbacks is that it raises the insulin level, which inhibits the release of growth hormones, which in turn depresses the immune system. This is not something you want to take place if you want to avoid disease."

Keep hydrated. We naturally inhale many viruses and bacteria during normal life. If we have a healthy nasal mucosa, mucus and macrophages attack and immobilize infectious agents. However, if you are dehydrated they are able to attach and penetrate more easily. Keep hydrated, especially on the plane trip down.

Wash hands Wash hands frequently, especially before eating and while in public places. Most infections on airplanes are due to the germs on the surfaces rather than just airborne infections. If we wash hands and are careful to avoid touching mouths and noses we reduce our risk.

Sleep: It is important to get adequate sleep to remain healthy.

Supplements
Daily vitamin: Just in case our diet doesn't contain enough of all the trace elements and vitamins, adults and kids should take a daily vitamin.

Wellness Supplement: For the next 3 weeks we should take a daily supplement of extra vitamin C, vitamin A and zinc.

Mushrooms: We can take a daily dose of extract of Reishi Mushroom. This is an immune system booster. We are only taking this in relatively low dose and will discontinue Wren's a few days prior to surgery.

Cod liver oil: We should continue taking cod-liver oil daily. This encourages a less-inflammatory response from the immune system. It can be taken long term - 1T for adults and 1t for kids. Apparently the kids-dose capsules are too low and the 4 caps on the label is insufficient. They can have up to 12 caps.