Drinking Alcohol Even Days Before Surgery, Can Be Deadly
Doctors now caution anyone due for scheduled surgery to limit, or eliminate, alcohol consumption prior to a procedure.
While chronic and heavy drinking has long been known to cause extreme bodily damage, doctors now warn of the risks of even a single bout of binge drinking – before going into surgery that is.
Recent German research shows that mice fed alcohol at binge drinking levels for only a short time suffered considerably more damage than non alcohol exposed mice, after being purposefully infected with pneumonia. The drinking mice suffered worse lung damage from the infection, and produced greater levels of cytokines, which are a sign of a poorly functioning immune system.
Even short periods of binge drinking, perhaps even a single session, seem to reduce immune system efficiency for a time.
Claudia Spies, a German doctor working out of the Charite University Hospital, cautions that even people who drink only 2 or 3 drinks day suffer more complications and infection after surgery, and she cites the high incidence of alcohol involved injury in emergency rooms for equally high immune-system complications seen in emergency medicine. Elizabeth Kovaks, a doctor out of Loyola University, agrees, and explains that alcoholics are in fact more at risk of death through opportunistic infections than cirrhosis of the liver.
Doctors now caution anyone scheduled for surgery to minimize drinking in the weeks prior to a procedure, with no drinking the safest course of action. Alcohol simply increases the risks of complications and slows down the recovery process.
Doctors also plead for honesty from patients over alcohol consumption habits, explaining that should doctors know of alcohol-related risks, they may be able to take extra, and possibly life-saving, precautions.
More like this
Medical Group Warns that Common Heart Attack Medications Can Be Deadly for Cocaine Users
The American Heart Association has recommended that doctors start asking emergency room visitors complaining of chest pain, whether they had been using cocaine.
Worldwide, Alcohol Leads to Early Death for 1 in 25. In Europe, It’s 1 in 15
Alcohol’s influence on early death has grown since the year 2000, attributable largely to an increase in drinking by women, and overall increases in developing countries such as India and China.
Scientists Understand College Drinking Better, But College Drinking Fatalities Continue to Rise
Despite research over the past number of years that has produced a greater understanding of the kinds of interventions that reduce excessive drinking on college campuses, the fatality and binge drinking rates continue to rise.
Smoking Bans Linked to Increase in Alcohol Related Traffic Deaths
Smoking bans are causing people to drive farther, to bars in jurisdictions that allow public smoking.
Need an Operation? Better Quit Smoking
Smokers have twice the likelihood of wound healing complications after surgery, but those who abstain from tobacco for 4 weeks prior to an operation can eliminate this elevated risk.