Living Wholy

For over 30 years I’ve been working with people in the movement arena.  My specialty in this field is teaching people strategies to reduce, manage and/or eliminate their back pain.  I help my clients to discover and implement strategies that reestablish proper postural alignment, correct stabilization techniques and identify and resolve faulty movement patterns.  I also like to make them aware that what they eat can be a big factor in the quality and health of their spine.  When people think about back pain they never make the connection between diet and how it could have any bearing upon the well-being of their spine.  But what you eat does influence the health of your back. Let’s look at how food can relate to your back pain.

What You’re Eating Could Be The Source Of Your Back Pain

Back pain is usually a result of inflammation and inflammation in your spine is exactly what is causing the pressure on the nerves that results in the unpleasant pain in your back.  I will ask people when they have an episode of back pain what they felt caused it.  When they can’t really give me a concrete explanation I then inquire about their food intake for the last two days.  Usually what I find is that they have been consuming quite a bit of inflammatory foods.  What they have eaten and the relationship to their back flare up never enters into their culprit line up, but this could very well be the source of their irritation.

Whether you stub your toe, combat a cold or irritate the lining of your digestive tract your immune system springs into action to protect the homeland and quickly responds to the perceived injury.  We call this call to duty an “inflammatory” response and the signs the battle is raging show up as pain, heat, redness and swelling of the injured tissue.

Most of you can easily recognize these outward signs of inflammation when it occurs on the more superficial and noticeable surface structures of your body.  Internal inflammation can be lurking under the radar just below the surface of your skin, without the obvious more familiar signs usually associated to a healing response. This type of internal inflammation is at the core of our wellness and is responsible for many health issues and chronic degenerative diseases like cancer, heart disease, arthritis, diabetes and, believe it or not, low back pain.  When you consume foods that triggers you immune system to respond that response shows up as inflammation, chronic style.Refined sugars, saturated or trans fats, animal based and processed foods are known for triggering an inflammatory response.

To keep your back healthy you need to implement a spine healthy plant based diet that focuses on an abundance of anti-inflammatory foods. This would include whole plant based nutrient dense foods like fresh fruits and vegetables, beans, whole grains, seeds, nuts, and a good source of omega 3 fatty acids like chia and flax seeds. Because most people living in western society are consuming an overabundance of processed foods and commercially produced animal products, and not enough raw fruits and vegetables the fatty acid profile of our diet is one that promotes an excess of inflammation.

Cutting back on alcohol and caffeine, nourishing your body with foods that promote wellness and reduce inflammation, reducing stress, exercising regularly will all play a part in lowering your inflammation levels and the responses that play havoc on the health of your spine!