Nutritional Supplements for Plastic Surgery in Los Angeles & Beverly Hills

We all want to live healthier lives. A big part of improving one’s health has to do with optimizing nutrition. California women are now eating organic foods, as well as taking vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements. While Los Angeles women are conscious of the importance of proper nutrition for their daily living, they forget that this is even more important for their recover from plastic surgery. Many scientific studies have demonstrated that most women’s bodies lack adequate level of minerals and vitamins to properly heal after cosmetic surgery. This slows their healing and makes their recovery more uncomfortable and protracted. At the California Center for Plastic Surgery, Dr. A. Friedman, a renowned anti-aging specialist, helps cosmetic surgery patients heal faster and better after plastic surgery by optimizing their nutritional and hormonal state.

Nutritional Optimization for Plastic Surgery

Peri-operative Nutrition Optimization (PONO) encompasses providing cosmetic surgery patients with vitamin, mineral, amino acid, and herbal support to maximize their bodies healing potential during their recovery from cosmetic surgery in Los Angeles. Each of us requires a number of essential nutrients to achieve optimum health. However, because most of us do not follow a well balanced diet on a consistent basis, we often do not obtain the nutrients that our bodies need. This becomes of paramount importance during times of stress, trauma, injury and surgery. At the California Center for Plastic Surgery, Dr. Friedman’s Peri-operative Nutritional Support program is a disciplined regiment designed not only to get you ready for your surgery, but to also help you heal faster and better after your plastic surgery. This Peri-operative Nutritional Optimization plan utilizes scientifically formulated blends of essential nutritional elements that are needed for optimal DNA and protein synthesis, cellular proliferation and mending, wound healing and immune function. This way you feel better and heal faster after your plastic surgery!

What Nutritional Support Programs do you offer for Plastic Surgery?

At the California Center for Plastic Surgery, we offer both an oral nutritional supplement program as well as an intravenous (I.V.) nutritional therapy program. Both programs have been specifically formulated to meet the unique demands of specific plastic surgery procedures such as body contouring, breast augmentation, and facial plastic surgery

What is I.V. nutritional therapy?

Intravenous Nutritional Therapy is a method of delivering vitamins, minerals, and amino acids directly into the bloodstream and is used to correct intracellular nutrient deficiencies. Oral intake of such high doses is simply not effective due to absorption limitations from the digestive process, especially after surgery. Patients can get up to 10 times the nutrients in one treatment as they could get orally in one day. A good example of this is the use of Vitamin C when trying to overcome a cold due to a viral infection. The antiviral effects of Vitamin C are seen when blood levels are around 10-15 mg/dL. This level is achievable with I.V. therapy but not orally. Oral dosage typically peaks with blood levels around 1.2-4.0 mg/dL vs. I.V. therapy of 50-90 mg/dL.

How is the I.V. Therapy administered?

At the California Center for Plastic Surgery, I.V. Nutritional therapy is administered in a most comfortable and private setting where the patient is lying down or reclining in a bed. The treatment is provided by a Registered Nurse who specializes in I.V. therapy, under the direct supervision of a physician. A very tiny butterfly needle is used to minimize any discomfort. The treatment takes approximately 20-30 minutes, during which time you can listen to music and/or read a magazine.

What can I expect to feel during the I.V. Nutritional Supplement Treatment?

Some patients experience a warm sensation in their chest or lower abdomen during the treatment as well as being able to taste the B vitamins being administered. As with taking most vitamins, you should not have the vitamin I.V. on an empty stomach.

What is the vitamin /Vitamin-Mineral I.V. protocol for plastic surgery patients?

Ideally a person who is planning to have plastic surgery should begin oral vitamin supplements one week prior to cosmetic surgery and continue for three weeks after surgery. The I.V. Nutritional Therapies is usually given as a series of three treatments. One treatment administered within one week prior to cosmetic surgery and the next two during the ten-day post-operative period. This regiment provides the essential nutritional supplements for healing at the time when you need it the most.

What nutrients are important for recovery and wound healing after plastic surgery?

Many scientific studies have established that a person’s requirements for nutritional supplements increase by up to five folds during the healing phase after cosmetic surgery. Lack of nutritional support during this crucial period can adversely affect ones recovery from plastic surgery.

The essential nutrients required for wound healing include:

Proteins: Protein deficiency impairs wound healing since protein is needed for fibroblast proliferation, new blood vessel formation and collagen production. In addition to wound healing, proteins are essential to the function of the immune system and the central nervous system.

Vitamin C: Vitamin C, or ascorbic acid is an essential water-soluble nutrient that plays a very important role in wound healing by increasing collagen and elastin synthesis. This is essential for proper healing of your incisions and surgical scars. Vitamin C also enhances white blood cell and neutrophil function of your immune system, which helps prevent infection.

B Complex Vitamins: Vitamin B deficiency adversely affects wound healing in a number of ways as it is required for collagen linkage, protein synthesis, DNA synthesis and ensuring a healthy immune system.

Zinc: Zinc is required for multiple aspects of wound healing including normal nucleic acid metabolism, DNA synthesis, protein synthesis, synthesis of structural proteins such as collagen, the function of several hundred enzymes, and for normal insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) production.

Copper: Copper is a required cofactor for the enzyme lysyl oxidase, which plays a role in the cross-linking (and strengthening) of connective tissue.

Antioxidants: The stress of surgery produces many free-radials that can damage tissue and slow down the healing process. Antioxidants protect against free-radical damage. Loosely defined, a free-radical is a highly reactive molecule that can bind to, and destroy healthy cells. Antioxidants like Vitamin C, Vitamin, A, selenium, copper, and manganese are very important in providing protection against free-radical damage. It is believed that antioxidants play an important role in wounded tissue protection and healing.

Other important nutrients and herbs:

Glutathione: Is a tripeptide, a compound composed of three amino acids (cysteine, glutamic acid, and glycine). It is responsible for the health of most of the cells in your body. It is involved in recycling antioxidants such as Vitamin C and E, protein synthesis, DNA synthesis and repair, stimulating production of interleukin 1 and 2 which help regulate your immune system and is itself a powerful antioxidant.

Bromelain: is an enzyme shown to have significant anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Used prior to and following a surgical procedure it can help to reduce healing time, swelling and bruising. Because it is also a powerful anticoagulant it should not be taken with blood thinners (aspirin, warfarin, etc.).

Arnica: Perhaps the most widely recognized homeopathic agent in use in medicine today is derived from Arnica Montana. Arnica is available in pellet, topical or injectable forms. It is frequently used preoperatively, to help decrease the incidence and extent of swelling and bruising.

Cost of IV Nutritional Support for Plastic Surgery

The fee for intravenous vitamin therapy ranges a few hundred dollars, which is a minute cost for safeguarding your plastic surgery endeavor. For details of costs and fees for intravenous and oral Nutrional supplement and vitamin therapy contact California Center for Plastic Surgery or http://www.antiaging-specialist.com/about.htm

Amir Friedman, M.D. is a specialist in the area of Anti-Aging, Regenerative, and Functional Medicine. Dr. Friedman specializes in advanced bioidentical hormone replacement and nutritional therapies. Dr. Friedman is in private practice with office locations in Los Angeles, and Encino, California. He is a current member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and the fellowship program in Anti-Aging, Regenerative, and Functional Medicine. Dr. Friedman has trained with the worlds leading experts in bioidentical hormone replacement, interventional endocrinology, growth hormone replacement, adrenal dysfunction, thyroid disorders, advanced nutritional therapies, and integrative, and functional medicine. Dr. Friedman’s practice focuses on personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. After the completion of his training at UCLA Medical Center, Dr. Friedman’s objective was to help patients resolve their medical problems by treating the symptoms as well as the disease, through standard pharmaceutical treatments and surgical procedures. Like so many of his colleagues, he set about his practice and dutifully applied these treatments as he was taught. But there were still nagging questions that remained – why did so many patients continue to have only modest success in treating and curing illness? Why were so many of the most common illnesses on the rise – diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease, to name a few? What Dr. Friedman discovered was that the outcomes for his patients dramatically improved when they were balanced physiologically as a whole. In other words, patients, when treated with a strong emphasis on prevention and a search for the cause of the problem, would have greatly improved results. Specifically, these preventive treatments involve the application of bioidentical (exactly identical to the hormones that you and I make) hormone therapies and advanced nutritional therapies. These therapies are effective in augmenting traditional approaches to disorders such as adrenal fatigue/stress, allergies, anxiety, arthritis, asthma, breast cancer prevention, cardiovascular protection, cholesterol (too high or low), cellular nutritional deficiencies, constipation, gas/bloating, decreased exercise endurance, depression/mood disorders, diabetes/elevated sugar, fatigue, erectile dysfunction (ED), hair loss (men and women), migraine headaches, high blood pressure, immune disorders/increased infections, indigestion, infertility, inflammatory disorders, insomnia, irritability, memory loss, menstrual irregularities, osteoporosis, polycystic ovaries, PMS, postpartum depression, prostate enlargement, sex drive/low libido, spinal disorders/back pain/failed back syndrome, dermatological disorders/premature aging, sports injuries, tissue laxity/premature facial and body aging, and overall improvement of wellness. Most importantly, these treatments are described in the evidence-based medical literature. What that means is that these treatments are NOT experimental and they have been applied successfully and safely to patients just like you. An abundance of research now supports the view that the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other. Dr. Friedman and his staff are committed to remaining on the forefront of research and advancements in Anti-Aging, Regenerative, and Functional Medicine in order to improve the quality of our patients lives with optimal health, vitality, and well-being.

Carrie Wilson, R.N. (I.V. Therapist) is a California licensed Registered Nurse. She has been a nurse and nurse educator for over fourteen years in the Los Angeles area. She has had advanced training in Perioperative nursing, Anti-Aging & Regenerative Medicine, Dermatology, Wound Care, and Holistic Health Nursing. She is a member of AHNA (American Holistic Nurses Association) and AORN (The Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses). Nurse Carrie Wilson holds a philosophy of care that involves treating the “whole patient” and encouraging patients to become active educated participants in their own healthcare and overall wellness.

Sean Younai, MD, FACS is a Board Certified Cosmetic Plastic Surgeon who receives patients at the California Center for Plastic Surgery from the Northern as well as the Southern California regions. Some of these cities include Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, San Francisco, San Jose, Sacramento, Hollywood, Burbank, Sherman Oaks, Encino, Calabasas, Woodland Hills, Thousand Oaks, Westlake Village, Pasadena, Glendale, Valencia, Palmdale, Fresno, Bakersfield, and Oxnard.