Spine and Back Pain and Depression and Cognition Helped by Anti-Inflammatory Diet

August 09, 2022

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 variety of chronic diseases: cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, lung, mental, metabolic, neurodegenerative, and more. (1) Layden Chiropractic strives to reduce inflammation’s impact on the health of our Plainville 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 concerning the role of inflammation and depression reported that a pro-inflammatory diet was associated with a bigger risk of depression symptoms and diagnosis contrasted with those who ate 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 reporting the highest inflammatory diet had higher risk of saying they have low back pain, too. (3) Connections between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s disease have been published. The good news is that nutrition was written to be able to control 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 projected to affect 14.4% of people and rated as the largest contributor to disability in people over 50 years of age. Migraine is examined a great deal as to what causes it but still continues to be a bit of a mystery. Researchers summarized that many factors are involved: vascular function, trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may contribute to migraine pain. Studies related 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. Through 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 boosting omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation) were described as beneficial. (5) Layden Chiropractic knows the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.

ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET

Layden Chiropractic 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 lean meat, eggs, fish, fruit, legumes, coffee, tea, 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 handle this type of diet!

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

Schedule your next Plainville chiropractic visit with Layden Chiropractic. If inflammation has overstayed its good and normal welcome, we can talk about taking some steps toward a more beneficial anti-inflammatory diet. 

 
Layden Chiropractic presents new studies about the benefits of an anti-inflammatory diets for back pain sufferers as well as those with depression and cognitive decline issues.