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 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)
Pflugerville Wellness Center strives to lessen inflammation’s
influence on the health of our Pflugerville
chiropractic patients experiencing issues like
back pain, headache/migraine, depression and even cognitive issues associated
with 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 current
medical studies regarding 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 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) 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 modify 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 studied
a great deal as to what its mechanism is but still remains somewhat of a mystery. Researchers summarized
that many factors play a role: vascular function,
trigeminovascular pathway activation, pro-inflammatory and oxidative stats may impact migraine pain. Studies related
to the role of dietary interventions are few, but a newer
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, balance serotonin,
and suppress neuroinflammation. Through 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 (decreasing omega-6
and increasing omega-3 which were documented to affect inflammation)
were described as helpful. (5) Pflugerville Wellness Center
understands the power diet and nutrition may have in disease processes
like migraine, back pain, depression, and cognition.
ANTI-INFLAMMATORY DIET
Pflugerville Wellness Center also knows many of us don’t like
the word diet. It often brings to mind 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, vegetables, honey and plain dairy
like milk, yogurt, hard cheeses, kefir with limited consumption of
red meat and other dairy and sugar while staying away from canned/processed
food, sweetened drinks, and alcohol. (6) We are confident our
chiropractic patients can manage this type of diet!
CONTACT Pflugerville Wellness Center
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 be
beneficial.
Make your next Pflugerville
chiropractic appointment with Pflugerville Wellness Center. If inflammation has hung
around past its good and normal welcome, we can set
up a path toward a better
anti-inflammatory diet.