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 beneficial...like when it hangs around 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) Moriarty Chiropractic works to decrease inflammation’s effect on the health of our Nashua chiropractic patients dealing with issues like back pain, headache/migraine, depression and even cognitive issues related to 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 concerning the role of inflammation and depression found that a pro-inflammatory diet was related to a bigger risk of depression symptoms and diagnosis contrasted with those who chose an anti-inflammatory diet. (2) Another study recommended 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) Connections between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been reported. The good news is that nutrition was described as being 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 projected to affect 14.4% of people and rated as the biggest 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 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 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 linked. The inflammatory link appeared 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 helpful. (5) Moriarty Chiropractic knows the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET

Moriarty 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 incorporate eating lean meat, eggs, fish, fruit, legumes, coffee, tea, 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 manage this type of diet!

CONTACT Moriarty Chiropractic

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 interact and how chiropractic care and the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may be beneficial.       

Make your next Nashua chiropractic appointment with Moriarty Chiropractic. If inflammation has overstayed its good and normal welcome, we can set up a path toward a more beneficial anti-inflammatory diet.