Spine and Back Pain and Depression and Cognition Helped by Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Inflammation is good and normal…in certain circumstances like defending a part of the body that is injured or infected. Inflammation is detrimental...like when it hangs around too long. Inflammation is a cellular level event and may contribute to a multitude of chronic diseases: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, lung, mental, metabolic, neurodegenerative, and more. (1) Apple Country Chiropractic strives to lessen inflammation’s impact on the health of our Williamson chiropractic patients dealing with issues like back pain, headache/migraine, depression and even cognitive issues related to 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 related to a higher risk of depression symptoms and diagnosis contrasted with 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 reporting the highest inflammatory diet had higher risk of saying they have 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 modulate the immune system and even alter the neuroinflammatory processes related to Alzheimer’s and age-related cognition issues. (4) These descriptions demonstrate just how extensive inflammation can be.
…EVEN MIGRAINE
Migraine as primary headache is estimated to affect 14.4% of people and ranked as the largest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is studied a great deal as to what its mechanism is but still continues to be somewhat of a mystery. Researchers summarized that many factors play a role: vascular function, trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may contribute to migraine pain. Studies related 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, reduce CGRP (calcitonin gene related peptide) level, stabilize serotonin, and suppress neuroinflammation. Through inflammation and irregular hypothalamic function, obesity and headaches (including migraines) may be linked. The inflammatory link appeared in the published papers. Dietary interventions like supplementing with essential fatty acids (reducing omega-6 and boosting omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were described as helpful. (5) Apple Country Chiropractic understands the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Apple Country Chiropractic also knows many of us don’t like the word diet. It often brings to mind what we can’t eat. A good diet allows a lot of good food though. Basic guidelines for an anti-inflammatory diet design incorporate eating lean meat, eggs, fish, fruit, legumes, coffee, tea, vegetables, honey 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 confident our chiropractic patients can manage this kind of diet!
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on the Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes how inflammation and the immune system work and how chiropractic care and the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may be beneficial.
Schedule your next Williamson chiropractic appointment with Apple Country Chiropractic. If inflammation has hung around past its good and normal welcome, we can set up a path toward a more beneficial anti-inflammatory diet.
