4 Tips to Keep the Surgeon Away

There is an old joke among surgeons – “How can you tell if a body belongs to a surgeon? There are no scars on the surgeon.” This has changed as surgery has become safer and more life saving, but the truth to the joke is that all surgeons know that avoiding surgery is the best option, if possible.

With that in mind, here are the top 4 things you can do to prevent surgery:

1. Stop putting toxic substances into your body, such as:
   1. Tobacco. Causes heart disease, peripheral vascular disease (limb artery disease), all sorts of cancers, osteoporosis, just to name a few.
   2. Sugar and excess carbohydrates. Causes and exacerbates diabetes which results in foot ulceration, foot fractures, heart and peripheral vascular disease, obesity, and arthritis.
2. Exercise Regularly
   1. Exercise increases bone mass, prevents obesity and vascular disease, and improves balance and coordination. This decreases the likelihood of falls in both the young and elderly.
3. Learn Proper Exercising Technique
   1. Overuse injuries come from improper techniques. Less than 1% of runners run correctly using the fore/midfoot strike, and they often pay for it with injury.
   2. Swimmers are plagued by rotator cuff tendon problems because they don’t do the stroke right.
   3. Weight lifters train wrong, use improper form and recurrently injure themselves.
4. Don’t do Stupid Things
   1. Orthopedic surgeons have dozens of stories of stupid risks patients took that resulted in fractures, sprains, etc.
   2. Beginners in recreational sports are much more likely to have an injury than experts.
   3. People fall off of ladders and injure themselves often because of some stupid action.