About: Blog post written for the DDP YOGA Better Back Challenge to provide information on foods that can help those with back pain.
Original post at: http://blog.ddpyoga.com/nutrition/articles/nutrition-for-back-pain
JULY 6TH, 2018
Nutrition for Back Pain
If you’ve been struggling with back pain for a while you’ve probably tried everything you can to get it remedied. Whether it’s stretching, pain relief pills, chiropractors, back braces, or acupuncture, if you’re not finding relief, you could be overlooking an important component that could be keeping you in pain. What you’re feeding your body is just as important as what you’re doing with your body. Many of the foods, even the ones you think might be good for you, could be contributing to your back pain. The most important thing you can do when trying to eliminate back pain is to reduce the inflammation in your body that’s being caused by the foods you eat. An anti-inflammatory diet will help you maintain a healthy body weight, prevent back pain from returning, and of course, decrease inflammation that causes some of the pain.
As Amanda Pierce says in her Homes Cures That Work article on Nutrition for Spine Health, “When there is inflammation, pressure or irritation occurs in the nerves of the spine. Quelling the inflammation allows the nerves to quit firing pain signals and therefore brings relief.”
Here are some of the nutrients that are important to add to your diet if you’re looking to eliminate back pain. These nutrients assist the body in producing and repairing collagen which helps keep ligaments, tendons, and discs in your back flexible.:
- Manganese (dark chocolate, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, pecans)
- Omega-3 (sardines, tuna, salmon)
- Antioxidants (blueberries, raspberries, blackberries)
- Vitamin C (oranges, lemons, limes, spinach, kale, strawberries)
- Sulfur (broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, onions)
- Vitamin A (carrots, sweet potatoes)
DDP highly recommends eliminating gluten from your diet to decrease inflammation. Here’s a little background to smarten you up. Since the 1990’s grains have been altered to prevent pesticides. Gluten was already difficult to digest before being modified. Now, it’s been shown that 75% of people have a reaction to modified grains. This reaction means that the body views gluten as an invader and responds with inflammation that causes a lot of joint pain.
Dairy is another common inflammatory substance that causes joint pain. You might think that milk is important to keeping your spine bones healthy but think again. The head of the nutrition department at Harvard School of Public Health, Walter Willett, M.D. Ph.D., states that there is very little evidence that dairy products actually reduce bone fractures. Calcium is important for bone health, but you can get more calcium in 1 1/2 cups of chickpeas than in 1 cup (8 oz) of milk.
Dr. Axe, a doctor of natural medicine, recommends adding the following foods and nutrients to your diet, in addition to eliminating cow-diary and gluten and things like refined grains and oils and added sugar.
- High-fiber fruits and vegetables
- Water (drink half your body weight in oz of water each day)
- Potassium-rich foods
- Clean, lean-protein foods
