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 damaging...like when it persists too long. Inflammation is a cellular level event and may be a factor in a multitude of chronic diseases: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, lung, mental, metabolic, neurodegenerative, and more. (1) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation strives to lessen inflammation’s influence on the health of our Carrolltown 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 existing medical studies concerning the role of inflammation and depression reported that a pro-inflammatory diet was related to a greater risk of depression symptoms and diagnosis compared to those who ate an anti-inflammatory diet. (2) Another study suggested a connection between low back pain and pro-inflammatory diets as well. A study of 7346 people revealed that those who said they followed a 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 reported. The good news is that nutrition was written to be able to regulate the immune system and even alter the neuroinflammatory processes related to Alzheimer’s and age-related cognition issues. (4) These descriptions show just how far-reaching inflammation can be.
…EVEN MIGRAINE
Migraine as primary headache is projected to impact 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 a bit of a mystery. Researchers summarized that many factors play a role: vascular function, trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may add 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 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 described as beneficial. (5) Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation understands the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation also knows many of us do not like the word diet. It often reminds us of things what we can’t eat. A good diet allows a lot of good food though. Basic guidelines for an anti-inflammatory diet design consist of 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 sure our chiropractic patients can handle this kind of diet!
CONTACT Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation
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 be beneficial.
Make your next Carrolltown chiropractic visit with Gormish Chiropractic & Rehabilitation. If inflammation has overstayed its good and normal welcome, we can talk about taking some steps toward a better anti-inflammatory diet.
