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 variety of chronic diseases: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, lung, mental, metabolic, neurodegenerative, and more. (1) Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries works to lessen inflammation’s effect on the health of our Manchester chiropractic patients dealing with issues like back pain, headache/migraine, depression and even cognitive issues related to Alzheimer’s. An anti-inflammatory diet has a role in this effort.
INFLAMMATION LINKED TO BACK PAIN, DEPRESSION, ALZHEIMER’S…
A systematic review and meta-analysis of existing medical studies concerning the role of inflammation and depression found that a pro-inflammatory diet was related to a greater risk of depression symptoms and diagnosis compared to those who chose an anti-inflammatory diet. (2) Another study recommended a connection between low back pain and pro-inflammatory diets as well. A study of 7346 people revealed that those reporting the highest inflammatory diet had higher risk of reporting low back pain, too. (3) Links between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been described. The good news is that nutrition was described as being able to regulate the immune system and even alter 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 projected to impact 14.4% of people and rated as the largest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is studied a great deal as to what causes it 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 better mitochondrial function and energy metabolism, reduce CGRP (calcitonin gene related peptide) level, stabilize serotonin, and suppress neuroinflammation. Via inflammation and irregular hypothalamic function, obesity and headaches (migraines too) may be linked. The inflammatory link came out in the published papers. Dietary interventions like supplementing with essential fatty acids (decreasing omega-6 and boosting omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were discussed as beneficial. (5) Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries understands the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries also knows many of us don’t 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, vegetables, honey and plain dairy like milk, yogurt, hard cheeses, kefir with limited consumption of red meat and other dairy and sugar while avoiding canned/processed food, sweetened drinks, and alcohol. (6) We are confident our chiropractic patients can manage this kind of diet!
CONTACT Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries
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.
Make your next Manchester chiropractic visit with Manchester Chiropractic & Sports Injuries. If inflammation has hung around past its good and normal welcome, let’s talk about taking some steps toward a better anti-inflammatory diet.
