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 damaging...like when it persists 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) Dr. Butwell works to lessen inflammation’s impact on the health of our Georgetown chiropractic patients suffering with 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 current medical studies regarding the role of inflammation and depression found that a pro-inflammatory diet was related to a higher 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 reporting the highest inflammatory diet had higher risk of reporting low back pain, too. (3) Connections between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been described. 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 extensive inflammation can be.
…EVEN MIGRAINE
Migraine as primary headache is estimated to affect 14.4% of people and rated as the biggest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is examined a great deal as to what its mechanism is but still remains somewhat of a mystery. Researchers summarized that many factors are involved: vascular function, trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may impact 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, balance 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 (reducing omega-6 and increasing omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were described as beneficial. (5) Dr. Butwell knows the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Dr. Butwell also knows many of us don’t like the word diet. It often reminds us of things 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, honey, vegetables and plain dairy like milk, yogurt, hard cheeses, kefir with limited intake of red meat and other dairy and sugar while staying away from canned/processed food, sweetened drinks, and alcohol. (6) We are sure our chiropractic patients can manage this type of diet!
CONTACT Dr. Butwell
Listen to the PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on the Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he shares how inflammation and the immune system work and how chiropractic care and the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may well help.
Make your next Georgetown chiropractic appointment with Dr. Butwell. If inflammation has hung around past its good and normal welcome, we can talk about taking some steps toward a more beneficial anti-inflammatory diet.
