A Well-Nourished Richmond Spine Heals Better

Your health status and nutritional status mirror each other. Nutritional status is measured by a mix of 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). Johnson Chiropractic can tell a lot about the nutritional status of a Richmond chiropractic patient during the first clinical Richmond chiropractic examination and set up a treatment plan to address any nutritional concerns that pop up especially 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 assist Richmond post-surgical healing and reduce Richmond post-back surgical complications.Good status also helps healing with non-surgical care!

One test that is a good sign of your Richmond nutritional status is the serum albumin concentration. Researchers talk about how nutritional status shares postsurgical outcomes and healing. Specifically, hypoalbumin levels – low levels under 3.5 g/dL – indicate a malnourished state and are indicative of post-surgical recovery complication rates, particularly for patients who experience anterior cervical discectomy and fusion. Low albumin concentrations in patients before surgery had higher rates of experiencing 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%). Post-surgical readmission rates can be affected by pre-operative nutritional status, an issue that a patient can address before the surgery. (2) Johnson Chiropractic can help you get a Richmond blood test to check your levels. Johnson Chiropractic looks at statistics like this and appreciates how important nutrition is for our Richmond chiropractic patients’ health and healing as well as their spine care. Johnson Chiropractic is ready to help raise your nutritional status for optimum healing preoperatively, postoperatively and back surgery-preventatively!

Lastly, the nutritional status of spine surgery patients at an orthopedic hospital was gathered using the Nutritional Risk Score 2002 at admission and discharge. Their nutritional status – nutritional risk, malnutrition, overweight and obesity – and nutritional support at the hospital after surgery play significant roles in patient recovery. 88% of patients who were nutritionally at-risk got 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 is not very good! (3) While these stats didn’t put the hospital care in a good light, they did alert the hospital to be more aware and ready to help these patients who come in for surgical procedures with a known risk. Johnson Chiropractic looks for ways to preempt Richmond health issues by checking for them early on!

Johnson Chiropractic certainly wants to help Richmond back pain patients stay away from back surgery if possible, and Johnson Chiropractic is also effective at helping our back pain patients get into good nutritional and physical shape before and after surgery as required. Johnson Chiropractic is ready to cooperate with Richmond back pain patients who desire a healthier nutritional status and keep surgery at bay whenever feasible. It is not always a simple journey to a healthy nutritional status, but it is a worthy 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 used.

Count on Johnson Chiropractic, your back pain specialty practice, to be your Richmond nutritional status guide.