Introduction
Alcohol in a moderate amount once in a while can help you unwind from your stress. But it creates more problems than it solves! The reason is being alcohol being a centrally acting drug interferes with blood flow and breathing mechanisms and hence it can also be a big hindrance in cosmetic surgery recovery as well as increase the risks of your cosmetic surgery. Here in this article we will analyze what all problems alcohol can cause if you indulge in it before or after your cosmetic surgery.
1. More swelling
Swelling is a normal part of any surgical process. But what alcohol does is expanding of your blood vessels thus more fluid accumulation and tissue gets swollen more easily. This interferes with your healing and prolongs the recovery time.
2. Unwanted bleeding
Alcohol acts as a natural blood thinner i.e. it does not allow your blood to clot easily. This means that there are greater chances of bleeding during surgery and also post-surgery from incision sites thus causing pain and increasing your recovery time period and delaying healing. Uncontrolled bleeding can turn fatal during the surgical procedure.
3. Increased anesthesia requirement
Alcohol is taxing on the liver and it can prevent the liver from breaking down other medicines given pre or post operative procedure and can also change how your body reacts to anesthesia thus increasing risk of allergic reactions and neccesating more anesthesia administration.
4. Dehydration
Alcohol pulls water from your body thus making your body take more time to heal completely. It also causes cracks to appear on your skin thus making scarring more noticeable and making more difficult for your cosmetic surgeon to stitch your wounds.
5. Fatigue
Alcohol is also responsible for making you feel sluggish and tired. This makes doing simple tasks difficult and difficulty in concentrating. Hence alcohol should be avoided.
6. Clashing with your medicines
Taking alcohol can clash with your post-operative medicines like painkillers, antibiotics thus delaying your healing and increasing your recovery time. Also alcohol when taken with certain medications can increase chances of adverse effects like aspirin if taken with alcohol can cause GI bleeding, insulin and alcohol can cause hypoglycemia or low blood sugar etc.
7. Increased chances of infection
Alcohol also if consumed over a period of time can increases chances of contracting infection via the surgical sites incisions. As alcohol delays wound healing there is more chance that bacteria or fungus can attack and cause infection like post-sick bed syndrome. This further causes complications and in serious cases septicemia.
8. Elevated cardiac risk
Alcohol can cause irregular cardiac rhythm which may change how your cardiac function works. It can cause breathing problems and also cause heart issues like heart failure in case of person having high blood pressure. It can also increase chances of fall or injury and cause orthostatic hypotension.