Georgetown Nutrition Approaches for Degenerated Discs: Broccoli, Aloe and Grapeseed Oil
Who knew? Researchers are an interesting group of people. How they come up things to experiment with is a curiosity! What would make them to think “broccoli, aloe vera and grapeseed may help disc degeneration” is a wonder to Dr. Butwell and surely to our Georgetown chiropractic patients, but a good wonder! They may be onto something to deal with degenerated discs which cause back pain, neck pain, and disruption of life.
PREVENTING AND POSSIBLY REVERSING DISC DEGENERATION
Georgetown low back pain is very closely linked to degeneration of the intervertebral disc in the spine. At its basic level, the Georgetown degenerated disc is defined by a reduced number of cells as well as change to its tissue and extracellular matrix content. In many studies, rabbit discs are studied as they are similar to human discs. In one rabbit study, researchers looked at the degenerated intervertebral disc and its response to the use of broccoli sprout extract. They proposed and their study discovered that this extract had restorative and preventive effects on degenerated discs. (1) In second rabbit study, grapeseed extracts were applied to degenerated discs. Due to their being natural flavonoids with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, grapeseed extracts were tried to find out how their inhibitory and anabolic effects would be on degenerated discs. They proved to be restorative and preventive in terms of affecting the degraded disc tissues’ collagen fibrils. (2) In a third study, aloe vera gel was applied to degenerated discs of rabbits. Aloe vera gel halted and reversed disc degeneration. Researchers wrote that there was a statistically significant (a big deal!) gradual reversal of degenerative changes. These modifications were seen in the collagen content organization, the nucleus pulposus and annulus fibrosus cell rise, and degree of disc degeneration. (3) Dr. Butwell will follow these interesting studies and see how they will translate into human use. Maybe these results will inspire Georgetown chiropractic patients to eat more broccoli, use grapeseed, and find a way to enjoy some aloe vera gel?
CONTACT Dr. Butwell
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. Robert Krause about disc degeneration on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he describes The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management integration of nutrition, exercise, and treatment of the painful degenerated disc.
Schedule your next Georgetown chiropractic appointment today. We can discuss if you knew just how beneficial such interventions like grapeseed, aloe vera and broccoli could be on easing Georgetown back pain by treating the herniated disc.
