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 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)
Apple Country Chiropractic works to decrease inflammation’s
effect on the health of our Williamson
chiropractic patients experiencing 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 existing
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 link
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 saying they have
low back pain, too. (3) Links between diet, nutrition and Alzheimer’s
disease have been published. The good news is that
nutrition was described as being 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 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 great deal as to what its mechanism is 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 add
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 improve mitochondrial function and energy metabolism, reduce
CGRP (calcitonin gene related peptide) level, stabilize serotonin,
and subdue neuroinflammation. Via inflammation and
irregular hypothalamic function, obesity and headaches (migraines too) may be related. The inflammatory link came
out in the published papers. Dietary interventions like the intake of essential fatty acids (reducing omega-6
and increasing omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation)
were described as helpful. (5) Apple Country Chiropractic
knows the power diet and nutrition may have in disease issues
like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Apple Country Chiropractic 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 include eating
lean meat, eggs, fish, fruit,
legumes, coffee, tea, 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 sure our
chiropractic patients can handle this kind of diet!
CONTACT Apple Country Chiropractic
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 interact and how
chiropractic care and the Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management may well help.
Schedule your next Williamson
chiropractic visit with Apple Country Chiropractic. If inflammation has overstayed its good and normal welcome, let’s set
up a path toward a better
anti-inflammatory diet.