Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
How you prepare
By Mayo Clinic staffGeneral anesthesia blunts your body's natural inclination to keep food in your stomach and out of your lungs. That's why it's important to follow your doctor's instructions about when to stop eating and drinking prior to surgery. In most cases, you should start fasting about eight hours before your procedure.
Your doctor may tell you to take certain medications with a small sip of water during your fasting time. You may need to avoid some medications, such as blood thinners like aspirin, for at least a week before your procedure. Some vitamins and herbal remedies also keep your blood from clotting normally, so you should discuss the types of dietary supplements you take with your doctor.
