Your health status and nutritional
status mirror each other. Nutritional status is measured by many
factors: serum levels, weight, and other issues. “ABCD” are factors considered – Anthropomorphic status (weight/body), Biochemical
(blood tests), Clinical (how well the body functions work as checked by a
physician) and Dietary (what you eat). Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC can tell a lot about the nutritional status of a La Grande
chiropractic patient during the initial clinical La Grande
chiropractic examination and set up a treatment plan to deal with any nutritional concerns that are uncovered particularly in patients who may be at
risk for a back surgery or any other surgical intervention for that matter.
A good pre-surgical nutritional status will help
La Grande post-surgical healing and decrease
La Grande post-back surgical problems.Good status also helps healing with non-surgical care!
One effective way to check your La Grande
nutritional status is the serum albumin concentration. Researchers
talk about how nutritional status affects
postsurgical outcomes and healing. Specifically, hypoalbumin
levels – low levels under 3.5 g/dL – indicate a
malnourished state and are predictive of post-surgical
recovery complication rates, especially for patients who experience
anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Patients with low albumin concentrations
before surgery had higher rates of having any major
postoperative complication(s) like pulmonary, cardiac and reoperation as well
as longer stays in the hospital. (1) In one study, malnourished patients
accounted for 28% were found to be malnourished and more
likely to have a postoperative complication and a longer hospital stay (8.67
days instead of 3.8 days). 14.48% of these spine surgery patients were
re-admitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge. Malnourished patients’
re-admission rate (27.5%) was three times that of nourished patients (9.52%). Pre-operative
nutritional status is an independent risk factor for re-admission after spine
surgery that can certainly be addressed before a
surgical intervention. (2) Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC can coordinate
a La Grande blood test to check your levels. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC looks
at statistics like this and understands how
important nutrition is for our La Grande chiropractic patients’ health
and healing as well as their spine care. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is prepared
to help raise your nutritional status for optimum
healing preoperatively, postoperatively and back surgery-preventatively!
Lastly,
in a
study of spine surgery patients in an orthopedic hospital, nutritional status
was obtained when they were admitted and discharged via the Nutritional Risk
Score 2002. It was found that nutritional status – nutritional risk,
malnutrition, overweight and obesity – and nutritional support at the hospital
after surgery play influential roles in patient recovery. 88%
of patients who had nutritional risk received
nutritional support while staying in the hospital. These
nutritional status factors changed: nutritional risk increased from 11.6% to
19.4%; malnutrition status increased from 12.7% to 20.6%; overweight status
decreased from 35.9% to 31.0%; and obesity status reduced from 7.41% to 5.79%.
Bottomline: the incidence of nutritional risk and malnutrition increased
significantly. That’s not good! (3)
While these stats may not seem great
for the hospital care, they did put the hospital on
notice to do more to
help these patients who present
with a known risk before surgery. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC searches for
ways to preempt La Grande health issues by checking
for them in advance!
Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC looks to help La Grande back pain patients avoid
back surgery if possible, and Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC is also effective at helping
our back pain patients attain good nutritional and physical
shape before and after surgery as required. Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC
is poised to work with La Grande
back pain patients who want to get into good shape and keep surgery
at bay whenever feasible. It’s not always
an easy journey to a healthy nutritional status, but it’s a admirable one for your physical body’s
health and potential healing if surgery is called for as well as when a non-surgical healing approach is chosen.
Count on Paulette Hugulet, DC, LLC, your back pain specialty practice, to be your La Grande nutritional status guide.