Spine and Back Pain and Depression and Cognition Helped by Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Inflammation is effective and normal…in certain circumstances like defending a part of the body that is injured or infected. Inflammation is not good...like when it hangs around too long. Inflammation is a cellular level event and may be a factor in a variety of chronic diseases: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, lung, mental, metabolic, neurodegenerative, and more. (1) Young Chiropractic strives to decrease inflammation’s effect on the health of our Easley chiropractic patients experiencing issues like back pain, headache/migraine, depression and even cognitive issues associated with Alzheimer’s. An anti-inflammatory diet plays a role in this effort.
INFLAMMATION LINKED TO BACK PAIN, DEPRESSION, ALZHEIMER’S…
A systematic review and meta-analysis of current medical studies concerning the role of inflammation and depression reported that a pro-inflammatory diet was associated with a bigger risk of depression symptoms and diagnosis compared to those who ate an anti-inflammatory diet. (2) Another study recommended a link between low back pain and pro-inflammatory diets as well. A study of 7346 people described that those who said they followed a highest inflammatory diet had higher risk of reporting low back pain, too. (3) Connections between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been published. The good news is that nutrition was written to be able to control the immune system and even modify the neuroinflammatory processes related to Alzheimer’s and age-related cognition issues. (4) These descriptions demonstrate just how far-reaching inflammation can be.
…EVEN MIGRAINE
Migraine as primary headache is estimated to impact 14.4% of people and ranked as the greatest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is examined a great deal as to what its mechanism is but still remains a bit of a mystery. Researchers summarized that many factors are involved: vascular function, trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may add to migraine pain. Studies associating migraine to the role of dietary interventions are few, but a recent data search found that Ketogenic diet, modified Atkins diets, and low glycemic diets may improve mitochondrial function and energy metabolism, decrease CGRP (calcitonin gene related peptide) level, stabilize serotonin, and subdue neuroinflammation. Via inflammation and irregular hypothalamic function, obesity and headaches (migraines too) may be related. The inflammatory link emerged in the published papers. Dietary interventions like the intake of essential fatty acids (reducing omega-6 and increasing omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were discussed as helpful. (5) Young Chiropractic knows the power diet and nutrition may have in disease issues like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Young Chiropractic also knows many of us do not like the word diet. It often brings to mind what we can’t have. A good diet allows a lot of good food though. Basic guidelines for an anti-inflammatory diet design incorporate eating eggs, coffee, tea, fish, lean meat, legumes, honey, vegetables and plain dairy like milk, yogurt, hard cheeses, kefir with limited consumption of red meat and other dairy and sugar while staying away from canned/processed food, sweetened drinks, and alcohol. (6) We are sure our chiropractic patients can manage this kind of diet!
CONTACT Young Chiropractic
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on the Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he explains how inflammation and the immune system work and how chiropractic care and the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may well help.
Schedule your next Easley chiropractic visit with Young Chiropractic. If inflammation has hung around past its good and normal welcome, we can talk about taking some steps toward a better anti-inflammatory diet.
