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 not good...like when it persists 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) Satterwhite Chiropractic works to decrease inflammation’s effect on the health of our Oxford 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 regarding the role of inflammation and depression found that a pro-inflammatory diet was associated with a bigger 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 described that those reporting the highest inflammatory diet had higher risk of saying they have low back pain, too. (3) Links between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been described. The good news is that nutrition was written to be able to control the immune system and even modify 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 estimated to impact 14.4% of people and ranked as the biggest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is studied a lot as to what its mechanism is but still continues to be 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 not many, but a newer data search found that Ketogenic diet, modified Atkins diets, and low glycemic diets may improve mitochondrial function and energy metabolism, decrease CGRP (calcitonin gene related peptide) level, balance serotonin, and suppress neuroinflammation. Through inflammation and irregular hypothalamic function, obesity and headaches (migraines too) may be related. The inflammatory link emerged in the published papers. Dietary interventions like the intake of essential fatty acids (reducing omega-6 and boosting omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were discussed as helpful. (5) Satterwhite Chiropractic understands the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Satterwhite Chiropractic also knows many of us don’t 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 intake 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 Satterwhite Chiropractic
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.
Schedule your next Oxford chiropractic appointment with Satterwhite Chiropractic. If inflammation has hung around past its good and normal welcome, we can set up a path toward a better anti-inflammatory diet.
