How to Use Your Genetics and Nutrition

to Influence Surgical Outcomes

Surgery can be an event filled with so many feelings and questions—all the unknowns before, the journey to those answers, and then the emotions that fill all those moments in between leading up to the actual surgery itself. And there are so many unknowns regarding how quickly you will recover, how smoothly things will go, and your overall health after everything.

Hopefully, all will go well, and your health will be as good– if not better– than before you started down this path.

But, as many doctors will tell you, how you prepare for surgery can impact nearly every measurable outcome.

This brings us to what I’m writing about today: How to Use Your Genetics and Nutrition to Influence Surgical Outcomes.

And, what you need to learn can be unlocked through a simple test that will identify the genetic variations that make you uniquely you.

To start, let’s look at 11 different areas in which common genetic variations (also known as single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs), can affect your surgical outcomes.

These include:

1. Detoxification Ability

Although we often don’t think of detoxification ability as something that will affect us regarding surgery, it actually does. In fact, how our body detoxifies after receiving anesthesia can affect how quickly (and well!) we recover post-operatively. There are many suggestions to boost your capacity for detoxification such as drinking plenty of water, getting rest, and adding fiber. But the most often missed recommendation is to support your body nutritionally, such as with a high-quality multivitamin. And taking a supplement that is customized to support your genetic vulnerabilities can give you an additional edge.

2. Cardiovascular Health

Surgery can affect your cardiovascular health, regardless of whether your surgery is cardiovascular-related or not.  Understanding your genetic variations can aid you in several different ways.

1. You can plan accordingly for pre, during and post-surgical care that matches the needs of your genetic variants.
2. You can boost your system by taking the right nutrients and vitamins geared toward your genetics.
3. You can discuss the risks involved with your unique genetic makeup regarding cardiovascular health.

Surgery can bring cardiovascular risks and it’s important to boost your systems to minimize the potential.

3. Gut/ Microbiome Health

While research is still ongoing, studies have found a huge link between gut flora (aka microbiome) health and postoperative complications. In fact, these same studies have found that the microbiome of patients changes frequently after surgery. This can lead to complications due to the fact that the body is now fighting off the effects of these changes while simultaneously working toward recovery.

For that reason, more doctors are recommending prebiotics, probiotics and nutrients that will help sustain your natural flora while boosting your microbiome health when it is needed the most.

4. Healthy Body Mass Index

We all know that going into surgery with a higher body mass index is not ideal. In fact, if your BMI is over 25, the risk of surgical or postoperative complications can increase greatly. Studies have shown that losing even 5 to 10% of your body mass before surgery can drastically reduce risks.

But we also understand that our body mass is often affected by our genes. By looking at the SNPs in your own genetic makeup, you can understand how body mass is affected by your genes and can focus on a plan that enables you to reach and maintain a healthy body mass index, which will lower your surgical risks and improve your overall recovery from surgery.

5. Methylation Capacity

Methylation capacity is often unknown for many people; however, it significantly impacts an individual’s health, especially after surgery. This is because methylation affects gene expression, specifically related to immune response. Without proper methylation, the reduced ability to recover or stave off any post-surgery infections could lead to poorer health results, serious infections, and longer recovery times.

Methylation also affects how an individual responds to pain during and after surgery. In addition, poor methylation can lead to increased sensitivity to pain and decreased ability to tolerate pain after surgery. Both of these factors can affect mental health and well-being and may affect the genes supporting your stress response, anxiety and depression after surgery.

Understanding your own methylation capacity in connection with the SNPs within your genetic makeup can enable healthcare providers to plan the best treatment for you throughout your health journey—from diagnosis through surgery to a healthy recovery.

6. Cognitive and Brain Function

While surgery has many benefits, studies have shown that cognitive and brain function declines shortly after surgery. How much and for how long depends on each individual patient, which is strongly linked to SNPs and how our genetic makeup affects the ability to recover from the dampening effects of anesthesia and surgery.

By optimizing your genes, especially ones that affect gut health, mood, and methylation, you can increase the speed of recovery regarding brain function decline and reduce how greatly it affects you.

7. Mood

As we have already discussed mood in regard to methylation capacity, I am only going to touch on mood briefly here. First, it is important to understand that regardless of how positive the surgical outcome is, post-operative depression is quite common. Up to 25% of surgery patients will experience some form of depression after surgery. Second, while anesthesia is linked to a cause of some mood changes, genes can affect the outcome of your mood.

In fact, studies have shown that patients who have a positive outlook also reflected in their mood, have better surgical outcomes, quicker recovery and are less prone to infections and other complications. The reason for this is often linked to positive mood-boosting immune function, which is an important part of surgical recovery.

However, with genes playing a large part in our mood, when you optimize your mood with the proper nutrients for your genetic variants, your recovery and mood can be affected toward the positive.

8. Healthy Immune Response

Your immune response—how quickly your body reacts to infection or trauma, how well it manages its defenses, and how quickly it learns and combats infections- is related to your genes.

There is an early immune response to the trauma caused by surgery. When this response occurs, it relies on innate immunity to help combat any signs of infection that may happen. In addition, it works with other systems in your body to help increase the speed of recovery and the risks of complications. When you understand the genetic variants linked to your immune response, you can optimize your body for a healthy immune response that will speed up your recovery.

9. Energy

Energy is a critical area when it comes to your genes and surgical outcomes because the body uses a significant amount of energy both through the surgical process and throughout healing and recovery. Genes can affect how well your body produces and utilizes energy and that is why it is so important to understand yours.

Another important tip to know is the role of CoQ10 in your body. CoQ10 is an antioxidant that is important in the production of energy within the body’s cells. Some genetic variants lead to better energy production when this antioxidant, in the form of either ubiquinone or ubiquinol, is used on a daily basis. Your genetics determine which form of CoQ10 is best for you.

10. Healthy Inflammatory Response

One area that should be no surprise when it comes to genetic influence is your inflammatory response. Countless studies have shown that surgery can trigger a systemic response. This can lead to several problems including the secretion of proinflammatory cytokines, tissue damage, and multisystem organ destruction.

For all of those reasons, it is key for individuals and their health providers to understand the SNPs involved in their individual inflammation response. Once they know, optimizing their healthy inflammatory response can help reduce the effects and chance of systemic inflammation, optimize the activity of proteins involved in inflammatory response and lead to marked differences in how well an individual responds to that inflammation during recovery.

11. Oxidative Capacity

Finally, oxidative capacity is seen in your muscles’ maximum ability to utilize the oxygen within your bloodstream. Some genes can affect how well your muscles are able to do this, but the key is that the healthier the muscle, the higher the oxidative capacity and the better your muscles can recover from the trauma of surgery.

So why is this important?

First, when we look at oxidative stress, we see that muscles, and how they utilize oxygen, are affected by it, and have a harder time recovering from any trauma when stressed.

Second, oxidative stress can lead to several problems such as reduced wound healing, increased organ dysfunction and lower mood due to stress.

Oxidative capacity, and optimizing it, can lead to greater health outcomes while reducing the risks of infection and other post-surgical complications.

So, what does this all mean for you?

In short, understanding your genetic variants will assist you in determining the individualized care plan you need for post-surgical recovery. Your individual outcomes will be optimized when you take your unique genetic makeup into account.

Knowing how your genes affect all 11 of the areas listed above will enable a comprehensive medical plan—including pre-surgery, surgery, and post-surgery—to be established, which can assist in optimized outcomes and reduced complications.

Now is the time to unlock the map of your genetics and optimize your health journey through surgery and beyond.

Check out the science behind this article here.