Prehabilitation – or prehab may help prepare your body before a treatment or surgery.
It can help reduce the impact and improve the tolerance of surgical treatments. Enhancing a patient’s physical condition may lead to better post-operation recovery, less pain and better outcomes.
By improving muscle strength, flexibility and cardiovascular fitness, recovery after surgery or treatment is often faster. Stretches and mobility exercise also mean less stiffness and soreness after a treatment.
Doing prehab may help show up other health issues
Prehab may help show up any other health issues, such as high blood pressure, diabetes or obesity. All can increase the risk of complications during arterial surgery. As well, patients having arterial treatments may have other conditions such as peripheral artery disease (PAD), diabetes or obesity. Prehab may help manage these conditions through lifestyle changes, which may improve outcomes.
What will help a patient with lymphoedema?
For a patient at risk of lymphoedema, or who already has lymphoedema, lymphatic drainage by gentle exercise, movement techniques or manual massage can help reduce the severity of symptoms and help prevent certain complications.
Exercises of movement and using strength can help with lymphatic drainage. This helps to remove waste products, toxins and fluids from the body, reducing the risk of swelling and inflammation post treatment.
What is Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) for prehab?
Manual Lymphatic Drainage (MLD) is a specialised massage to stimulate the flow of lymphatic fluid throughout the body and is used for prehab. It is especially helpful for patients with lymphoedema as it promotes fluid to drain away from areas where it collects.
Therapists use gentle, strokes and light pressure to stimulate the lymphatic vessels and promote the drainage of lymph fluid. The massage is usually directed towards lymph nodes, which act as filtration stations where lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell) can remove toxins and foreign bodies from the lymph fluid.
Doing exercise before a treatment or surgery will give patients some control over their results and recovery. Longer term the patient may be more likely to add exercise to their daily life and so get the benefits of a healthier lifestyle into the future.