Nutritional status denotes your
health status. Factors like serum levels, weight and other issues rate
nutritional status. “ABCD” are factors considered – Anthropomorphic status (weight/body), Biochemical
(blood tests), Clinical (how well the body functions work as checked by a
physician) and Dietary (what you eat). Soft Health and Healing Clinic can deduce
lots about the nutritional status of a Brooks
chiropractic patient during the first clinical Brooks
chiropractic examination and establish a treatment plan to deal with any nutritional concerns that are uncovered particularly in patients who may be at
risk for a back surgery or any other surgical intervention for that matter.
A good pre-surgical nutritional status will assist
Brooks post-surgical healing and decrease
Brooks post-back surgical problems.Good status also helps healing with non-surgical care!
One test that is a good indicator of your
Brooks nutritional status is the serum albumin concentration. Researchers
talk about how nutritional status influences
postsurgical outcomes and healing. Specifically, hypoalbumin
levels – low levels under 3.5 g/dL – demonstrate a
malnourished state and are indicative of post-surgical
recovery complication rates, particularly for patients who undergo
anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Patients who have low albumin concentrations
before surgery had higher rates of experiencing any major
postoperative complication(s) like pulmonary, cardiac and reoperation as well
as longer stays in the hospital. (1) In one study, 28% of patients were found to be malnourished and more
likely to have a postoperative complication and a longer hospital stay (8.67
days instead of 3.8 days). 14.48% of these spine surgery patients were
re-admitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. Malnourished patients’
re-admission rate (27.5%) was three times that of nourished patients (9.52%). Post-surgical
readmission rates can be influenced by pre-operative nutritional
status, an issue that a patient can deal with before the surgery. (2) Soft Health and Healing Clinic can coordinate
a Brooks blood test to check your levels. Soft Health and Healing Clinic considers statistics like this and appreciates how
important nutrition is for our Brooks chiropractic patients’ health
and healing as well as their spine care. Soft Health and Healing Clinic is prepared
to help improve your nutritional status for optimal
healing preoperatively, postoperatively and back surgery-preventatively!
Lastly,
in a
study of spine surgery patients in an orthopedic hospital, nutritional status
was obtained when they were admitted and discharged via the Nutritional Risk
Score 2002. It was found that nutritional status – nutritional risk,
malnutrition, overweight and obesity – and nutritional support at the hospital
after surgery play significant roles in patient recovery. 88%
of patients who were nutritionally at-risk received
nutritional support while staying in the hospital. These
nutritional status factors changed: nutritional risk increased from 11.6% to
19.4%; malnutrition status increased from 12.7% to 20.6%; overweight status
decreased from 35.9% to 31.0%; and obesity status reduced from 7.41% to 5.79%.
Bottomline: the incidence of nutritional risk and malnutrition increased
significantly. That is not very good! (3)
While these stats did not place the hospital care in a
good light, they did alert the hospital to do more to
help these patients who present
with a known risk before surgery. Soft Health and Healing Clinic searches for
ways to preempt Brooks health issues by checking
for them in advance!
Soft Health and Healing Clinic looks to help Brooks back pain patients avoid
back surgery if possible, and Soft Health and Healing Clinic is also effective at helping
our back pain patients attain good nutritional and physical
shape pre- and post-surgically as needed. Soft Health and Healing Clinic
is poised to cooperate with Brooks
back pain patients who intend to get
themselves into better shape and keep surgery
at bay whenever feasible. It is not always
a simple path to a healthy nutritional status, but it’s a worthy one for your physical body’s
health and future healing if surgery is called for as well as when a non-surgical healing approach is used.
Rely on Soft Health and Healing Clinic, your back pain specialty practice, to be your Brooks nutritional status guide.