Robert Whitfield MD uses functional medicine to speed surgical recovery. He spends an hour per consult on circadian rhythm optimization, anti-inflammatory diet, and careful input management before and after surgery, especially for patients removing implants for suspected breast implant illness.
So how do you help patients heal from illness after? So are you also incorporating functional medicine post explant? Like it sounds like you're with nutrition and like are you helping patients detox post explant? Is there a protocol that you have?
We joke around here that I'm the functional plastic surgeon because my consults take an hour and they mostly revolve around not how I operate, but what I have you put in your mouth. So basically once I hear the stories and listen to and examine the patients and establish that the best course is an explant to relieve these symptoms from if it's breast implant illness, then we're going to talk with functional medicine approach to their pre op planning that includes how to get their circadian rhythms, you know, set so they'll have appropriate rest for both before and after surgery. The diet's a huge deal for me because I can't stand variance in outcomes. So I've operated a long time, I feel comfortable in any given situation. I can get the outcome. But as you know, with total body inflammation, poor diet, a lot of stressors that people will stay swollen for many, many, many months. And then that, that kind of, it's a combination of like pain and heaviness and irritation leads to more dissatisfaction. And I basically say at this point I'm a micromanager of everything that goes in the body before and after surgery because that's the way I get the best recoveries.
