Alcohol intake
Drinking alcohol affects your body’s ability to fight infection, stop bleeding and heal wounds/ prevent wound breakdown. It is therefore very important to cut down or stop drinking before surgery. Stopping for just 2 weeks pre-operatively will improve your body’s response to surgery. Stopping for a month will allow time for your heart to recover if drinking 3 or more alcoholic drinks a day.
If you have ever felt that you should:
- Cut down on your drinking
- Been annoyed by people criticising your drinking
- Felt bad or guilty about your drinking and/or
- Had a drink first thing in the morning to steady your nerves or help with a hangover
Please ask for help from the pre-op team or your GP. You can find more information by following the 'Effects of alcohol' link to the left of this page.