Vitamins, Minerals, Supplements and Surgical Healing
Want the best surgical result? Be sure to tell your doctor your entire medication regimen, in addition to your medical history. Specifically, your entire medication regimen includes: medications that have been prescribed by a physician (prescription or over the counter), over the counter medications you take regularly, and all vitamins, supplements, herbs, minerals, or additional holistic medicine formulas you take. Just as certain medications may impact your surgery and your body, vitamins and supplements may also have an influence.
For example, vitamins A and C, and zinc are important in stages of healing. So, if you are taking a supplement that impairs the body’s ability to absorb these nutrients, that may impair your body’s ability to heal, and therefore will negatively impact the results of your surgery.
Another example, some women take herbal supplement ginkgo biloba for its mood and memory enhancing effects. However, ginkgo biloba also has properties affecting the circulatory system, with properties that may improve blood flow or decrease clotting. Given these circulatory properties and the utmost importance of clotting in your surgical healing, taking ginkgo biloba is strongly discouraged in the weeks preceding your surgery. Especially for ladies seeking cosmetic gynecological procedures, such as labiaplasty and laser vaginal rejuvenation, this is of utmost importance given amount and concentration of blood flow in vaginal structures, and for your desired aesthetic result.
So, the take away: tell your doctor everything you’re taking! Your surgeon will work with you to ensure that your body is in the best shape for an optimal surgical result.