What are your thoughts on immune system supplements before and after surgery?

[Cnidium]

There are certainly some supplements that are effective for general health and immunity. But IMO it always needs to be in the context of the individual. Vit D3, for example, can be an effective supplement IF the person is vitamin D deficient and IF the person is able to balance out the D3 with its "sister" vitamins like K2, A, magnesium, ect. Its a slippery slope adding in supplements as you often need to balance them with more supplements, else risk causing imbalances or deficiencies in others. The other trap is the form of the vitamin. For examples, magnesium is highly bioavailable and beneficial in the glycinate/lycinate forms (among others), but near worthless from a health standpoint in its oxide form. Other nutrients, like iron, can be particularly toxin in their normal supplemental forms and especially for men. There are many variables to be aware of.

This is why I believe food is critical. If "balanced", a nutritious diet will cover most or all nutritional bases while achieving ideal micronutrient balance. There are some caveats to this, such as soil mineral depletion and the fact that most people wont eat organ meats like our grandparents or ancestors did.

If it helps, my personal diet is as follows:
1. lots of pastured read meat
2. regular wild caught fish / salmon
3. regular pastured eggs
4. lots of pastured butter
5. a moderate amount of easily digestible vegetables and white rice
6. a small amount of beef and chicken liver, and some bone meal

If you plug in my sample diet (i didnt provide the amounts of each item here) into cronometer, you will see that most of my nutritional requirements are covered only by food. I generally eat around 6oz of wild salmon daily, so even my vitamin D is near 100% rda from the fish/eggs/butter, which is rare for most people.

Costco is your friend. I spend ~$115/week on food. Most of it from Costco, some from a local farm. I'm a tall person also.

I will go full carnivore from time to time. Its generally more expensive as I have to give up the butter and replace the calories with meat. But its a nice reset and very easy on the stomach.

Many people will say my diet is bad, because of the heavy meat, butter, and cholesterol rich foods. To that I will respectfully disagree with them. Some scientific literature is good, some is bad. Some anecdotal experience is helpful, so is misguided. For me, I've never been in better health with this kind of diet.

I still supplement with some things:
Vit D3 + K2 (I believe higher D3 levels are needed beyond the RDA, for most people. K2 to balance it)
Magnesium glycinate (this cured my muscle cramps, even though I was getting enough by food according to food trackers. This mineral is significantly affected my soil mineral depletion)
Saccromycies cervasie extract (this is a friendly-yeast extract, which basically cured my allergies, supposedly very immune-system stimulating).


Anyways, I encourage most people to take an approach that balances scientific literature, other people's anecdotal experiences, and listening to your own body. The five main gauges I use to see if a diet and supplement regimen is working for is to pay attention to my mental clarity, how well I sleep, how I well I perform in the gym, and how well I poop.

I think health and the immune system is an under discussed topic that can influence an IPPs patient's recovery when its used in tandem with the surgeon's pre/post op care instructions.

I dont mean to hi jack the thread. I can add more about this when I get around to making my revision and general mentality threads.