Questions to ask before surgery

Questions to ask your surgeon

If you’re choosing a surgeon, you want to be discerning. Once you’ve eliminated other treatment options – such as physical therapy, medication or lifestyle changes – here are the questions to ask to make sure you’re in good hands.

▪ How often do you perform this surgery? (The surgeon should do the procedure multiple times weekly.)

▪ What’s your success rate, and what complications occur most frequently? How do you deal with them?

▪ Are you board certified? Are you a member of the American College of Surgeons? (No? Look elsewhere.)

▪ What’s your infection rate? What’s the rate of infections at the institution where you will perform the surgery?

▪ What anesthesia is usually employed for this? If the answer is “general” or “regional” (spinal or nerve block), follow up with “Will I meet the anesthesiologist?” (No? Go elsewhere. Yes? Ask the same questions about his or her training.)

▪ If it applies: “Do you usually work with a particular physical therapist or rehabilitation center?”

▪ How can I contact you if I have more questions?

If you’re satisfied with the answers, get it done, and look forward to getting better soon.

Getting a bang out of dietary magnesium

If you want to light up your nutrition and get a healthier bang for your buck, you should fuel up with magnesium – dietary magnesium, that is. It’s an essential mineral.

Magnesium helps support more than 300 body processes, from breaking down sugars to producing important proteins. But, depending on your age, up to 80 percent of you are deficient. Women need to aim for 350 milligrams a day, men 400.

Getting more is better: A new metastudy of around 1 million people found that an increase of 100 mg of dietary magnesium daily (that’s just a handful of almonds and a cup of kale) significantly reduces your risk of stroke, heart disease and diabetes. A Harvard study found that a high daily magnesium intake reduces the risk of Type 2 diabetes by 33 percent. (The only people who have to worry about too much magnesium are folks with deficient kidney function.)

Here’s where you get it.

Legumes: Beans, peas and soy

Nuts: Almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts and pecans

Seeds: Pumpkin, flaxseed and sunflower

Fish: Wild salmon, mackerel, halibut and tuna

Plus: Dark leafy greens such as raw or cooked baby spinach, collard greens, kale or Swiss chard; berries; dark chocolate; bananas; and avocados

Cardiac rehab

In the 1975 film “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” a villager tries to find a place on the dead collector’s wagon for the body of an old man, when the old guy proclaims, “But I’m not dead yet.” That’s the same happy declaration that tens of thousands of cardiac patients in the U.K. can make today.

That’s because the U.K. leads the world in the number of folks who take advantage of cardiac rehabilitation programs. There, 50 percent of people who have had a cardiac event sign up for this life-saving therapy. In the U.S., only about 20 percent do.

The American Heart Association says that patients who enroll in cardiac rehab within six months of a heart attack dramatically reduce their risk of dying in the next year. If they enroll within six to 12 months, it’ll reduce the chance of hospital readmission by 31 percent.

So why don’t folks take advantage of cardiac rehab programs? Some blame the insurance industry, which doesn’t always offer 100 percent coverage. Others blame their doctors. One study found that only 56 percent of heart patients were referred for cardiac therapy.

Cardiac rehab involves a team of specialists (a psychologist, doctor, nurse, exercise therapist and dietitian or nutritionist) who help you achieve a safe level of physical activity, adopt a heart-healthy diet and stick to your medication regimen.

This story was originally published January 8, 2017 at 8:26 PM with the headline "Questions to ask before surgery."