LEILA FADEL, HOST:
You've likely heard of rehabilitation after a surgery. But if you're one of the millions of Americans getting ready for a joint replacement or another major operation, you may want to ask your doctor about prehabilitation. ½ûÂþÌìÌÃ's Allison Aubrey explains.
ALLISON AUBREY, BYLINE: Prehabilitation is what you can do before a surgery to improve your chances of recovery. And a new study finds if you plan to go under the knife, taking time to prepare your mind and your body can really pay off. Here's study author Dr. Dan McIsaac, a professor at the University of Ottawa.
DAN MCISAAC: No matter what type of surgery you're preparing for, there's likely a benefit from prehabilitation.
AUBREY: So what exactly does this entail? Well, the top strategy is movement. The research shows people who do strength-building and other forms of physical activity in the month or two before, actually do better.
MCISAAC: We found that doing exercise before surgery showed really promising results - reducing the risk of complications by about 40%, decreasing length of stay, oftentimes by a day, and making a meaningful difference in how patients experience their recovery.
AUBREY: Another strategy is nutrition. In particular, Dr. McIsaac says it's important to up your protein intake, especially for people who have low muscle mass or frailty.
MCISAAC: When you get into the operating room and you go under the knife, your body undergoes a stress response. And it actually starts to pull protein out of your muscles to support the healing and stuff that's going to have to happen.
AUBREY: The research suggests that adding more high-protein foods, even for just a few weeks before an operation, can help. And a third component that makes a difference is to mentally prepare. Participants did everything from breathing exercises to talk therapy.
MCISAAC: Many of them were stress management or anxiety management interventions. You can imagine you're being told you're going to the operating room in a couple of weeks. That can be a very stressful experience.
AUBREY: The study analyzed about 15,000 patients who'd undergone many different types of prehabilitation. And Dr. Samir Sinha, a geriatrician at University Health Network in Toronto, says it's helpful to see data on what really can work.
SAMIR SINHA: What they've looked at is a variety of studies, you know, over - I think it was 186 trials that really kind of looked at a whole combination of these things. And so by pooling all of those together, you're able to kind of measure different outcomes.
AUBREY: Dr. Sinha was not involved in the study, but he treats a lot of older patients. So he says the findings offer up an important validation.
SINHA: This notion of prehabilitation has been around for a while. But it's really nice when you see a study that can actually say, yeah, what we kind of knew inherently made sense actually really does work and can have significant benefits.
AUBREY: Dr. Sinha thinks of it as being battle-ready or game-ready. The combination of exercise, nutrition and emotional support can build a reserve that pays off.
Allison Aubrey, ½ûÂþÌìÌà News.
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