Prioritizing your back pain through nutrition 

Between exercise and nutrition, you have two essential tools for avoiding and managing back pain. Nutrition is perhaps the more potent of the two because it deals with the ingredients that you provide your body- the building blocks of success. Nothing in the human body works without the right inputs, which help explains why the importance of nutrition is tenfold for people who suffer with back pain. People with back pain need extra nutritional support to keep inflammation down and support healing in the affected joints and tissues. Nutrition can also help augment the success of exercise in helping you manage back pain. Exercise helps boost circulation which brings nutrient and oxygen-rich blood to an injurious region. But what if we aren’t providing our body with those nutrients in the first place? 

 

Nutrition tips to account for back 

So why do we remain stuck in our poor eating patterns despite knowing better? Because it’s easy- the modern food system is geared toward instant gratification, and high percentages of nutrients are being sacrificed in the process. By choosing processed foods, sugary drinks, alcohol and tobacco we are literally choosing inputs that are devoid of nutritional quality and actually contributing to problems like obesity which will make back pain worse in the end. 

A simple formula for dieting with back pain is as follows: 

• Plenty of potassium for nerve and muscle function 
• Water to keep intervertebral discs hydrated
• Fiber for controlling digestion and fighting chronic pain and inflammation
• Healthy fats, rather than unhealthy ones, can actually help us fight inflammation and maintain a healthy weight.
• Lean proteins help with cellular repair
• Carbohydrates provide vitamins, minerals and energy

If you can forego processed foods and choose a more wholesome base set of ingredients for your diet, you will be doing your spine a big favor in the short and long runs. 

Getting healthy on the inside: an action plan

At our office in Hackensack, we are standing by to help our community seek a healthier spring. If you have been living with chronic back pain, it is time to start exercising the power you have over the problem through exercise and nutrition. Through spinal adjustment and other chiropractic modalities, we can help you establish spinal alignment and balance the body, creating a platform from which you can make powerful changes in your spinal health. Give us a call to schedule an appointment today.