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. NPR'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, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
