Is faster healing a thing?

(Jennifer M Worth) #1

So I just had my hernia repaired on Friday. My surgeon (whom I have only met twice) told me to do a keto/paleo diet. I was just sitting here wondering if I will heal that much faster not having carbs and sugar in my diet. Is it possible this is one of his reasons for encouraging it? I got sent home yesterday and was allowed to pull my own drain tube (no pain). In any case, I feel a tremendous amount of gratitude toward this man, who obviously knows more about nutrition as medicine than most Doctors I’ve met.

(Mike W.) #2

Keto is a pretty low inflammation diet, so yes it could definitely aid in the healing. Also, I imagine being a hernia that less bloating and gas would also ease the pain.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #3

For sure, you betcha! I notice that many of my cuts and scrapes heal a lot faster on keto. I’ve also noticed a great improvement in my scars from various surgical operations.

#4

I can imagine it’s possible. I don’t have anything like that, I healed quickly on carbs too, didn’t notice any change but I have this regarding nearly everything, I felt fine and healthy on high-carb too (still got some positive changes especially when my plant carbs go really low and when I went low-carb, I immediately knew there is no way back).

Eating less sugar and carbs in general is a good idea and if you get quicker healing too, it’s a nice bonus on top of the others…

(Nicci) #5

I’m just over 60 days in on Keto, and I can attest to noticing that the cuts and scrapes I get from working in the garden or one of the cats snagging me, are healing much quicker than before I started this diet.
I also have one small patch of psoriasis on one of my wrists. It showed up about 3 years ago, and it has remained persistent. I’ve refused to take any medication for such a small thing.
But since Keto it is starting to completely go away, smaller every week.

#6

My orthopaedic surgeon told me before knee surgery that keto greatly reduced the chance of infection post knee replacement. I found him at a keto conference. :grinning:

#7

For the first time ever, my daughter’s oral surgeon told her “Absolutely do not eat ice cream, pudding or jello or any sugary foods after this surgery.” (She had her wisdom teeth pulled.) My theory is, he knew what sugar does in aiding the growth of yeast, bacteria, etc. which equals a higher risk of infection afterwards.
Go back 40 years to when I had my wisdom teeth removed, and the doctor told my mom to feed me jello and ice cream. (As opposed to chicken broth and bone marrow) Or 50+ years, when the tonsils were removed. Doctor: “Feed her ice cream, jello and popsicles.” Got a sore throat? “Eat cold things like popsicles, and soft things spaghetti oos.”

Ya think maybe that could be related to why some of us see these things as “comfort foods”? From such a young age, we were essentially taught that these foods brought comfort or relief from something painful.

And, here we are.

(Mark) #8

:point_up_2:

Exactly!

(Jennifer M Worth) #9

Totally

#10

What. I heard about ice cream after tonsil removal but wisdom teeth…?
And there is the potato and biscuit when one has a stomachache or something worse related to stomach…? WHY? The last thing my poor stomach would need is carbs…

(I had no such problems, I ate my sweets without any recommendation… :frowning: )

I think those are comfort foods because people like them. Sweet things are beloved by many people, maybe from our fruit eating past, who knows. If an animal can taste sweet, it usually love sweet, as far as I know.
(I don’t have comfort foods - or just coffee but that’s a drink. I eat tasty things when I want to get joy as I am a hedonist. If I feel bad, I eat normal - less pushing for doing things right though. If I feel very very bad, I lose appetite. But I undertstand eating tasty things when needing comfort. And certain sweets are especially charming. Maybe because they are not proper food but something extra? People who got them rarely or as reward probably get more comfort from them… And people say they get happier from chocolate. Never felt that myself.)

#11

Think about that. Yes, we do like it. Maybe some of us like it too much. But, from a psychological perspective, consider these scenarios from the child’s and parent’s points of view. You have a medical professional- a DOCTOR or multiple DOCTORS - giving the instruction to feed the child ice cream. Jello. Pudding. Popsicles. Canned pasta. Not only does the child hear that instruction coming from a DOCTOR, and think- oh! it must be good for me; You also have a parent(s) who is being instructed by a doctor to feed the child these things - foods that WE NOW KNOW are antithetical to good health and healing. But the parent follows the instructions because it came from someone (a doctor) who supposedly knows waaayyyy more about medical treatments and healing than we lay people do. Whether they realized it or not, the medical professionals of that time/era were unknowingly reinforcing desires for bad foods, then connecting the feeling of comfort to these foods.

I don’t recall if its in the book, but Lies My Doctor Told Me by Dr. Berry might be a good read for anyone wondering about any other BS we’ve been fed by modern medicine.

#12

Yeah but many kids don’t have this experience and still grab ice cream to get a treat, either for comfort or other thing. It’s quite possible the doctor’s advice makes it even worse but even without it, there are too many reasons to grab some sweets…

People respects doctors too much (and doctors respect patients way too little, usually, I barely ever met a doctor but still experienced that), that’s bad. I went against their advice several times (about as many as I met one) and it did very good to my health… Especially my mental one.

Even if the doctor’s advice was good, it was for a specific time and situation, not for life…