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 bad...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) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka strives to decrease inflammation’s impact on the health of our Sitka chiropractic patients suffering with issues like back pain, headache/migraine, depression and even cognitive issues associated with 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 current medical studies regarding the role of inflammation and depression discovered 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 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 reporting low back pain, too. (3) Links between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been reported. The good news is that nutrition was written to be able to modulate the immune system and even modify the neuroinflammatory processes related to Alzheimer’s and age-related cognition issues. (4) These descriptions show just how extensive inflammation can be.
…EVEN MIGRAINE
Migraine as primary headache is projected to affect 14.4% of people and ranked as the biggest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is studied a great deal as to what causes it but still remains somewhat of a mystery. Researchers summarized that many factors play a role: vascular function, trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may impact migraine pain. Studies associating migraine to the role of dietary interventions are not many, 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 subdue neuroinflammation. Through inflammation and irregular hypothalamic function, obesity and headaches (including migraines) may be linked. The inflammatory link emerged in the published papers. Dietary interventions like the intake of essential fatty acids (decreasing omega-6 and boosting omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were described as beneficial. (5) Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka understands the power diet and nutrition may have in disease issues like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka 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 include 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 avoiding canned/processed food, sweetened drinks, and alcohol. (6) We are confident our chiropractic patients can handle this kind of diet!
CONTACT Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka
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.
Schedule your next Sitka chiropractic visit with Arctic Chiropractic, Sitka. If inflammation has hung around past its good and normal welcome, we can set up a path toward a more beneficial anti-inflammatory diet.
