Is It Really Possible To “Eat” Your Back Pain Away?

Is It Really Possible To “Eat” Your Back Pain Away? This is a guest post by: Igor from Help Your Back. His website is dedicated to helping people with various musculoskeletal conditions and other related problems. The goal of the website is also to educate and provide information regarding anatomy of the human body; feel free to stop by!

I`m sure you must be thinking “What in the world is this guy talking about, how can you eat your back pain away?” Well, stay tuned and find out, `cause today we will be talking about nutrition and its effect on our body, primarily when it comes to back pain.

We live in an unhealthy society and as much as we wanted to, we just can`t deny this fact. Our kids and their childhood, in general, is radically different compared to ours – lack of mobility and poor nutrition are the two main causes for this current situation, so attempting to fix it might be quite a challenge.

Back Pain Through History
Nowadays, more and more people go to their doctors complaining about back pain, so one might think that back pain is a “side effect” of our “modern” way of life. But this is not entirely true…

The oldest surviving text mentioning back pain dates back to 1500 BC where Egyptian scribe recorded back pain examination, diagnosis and treatment (though the description of the treatment is incomplete and it left the scholars wondering whether Egyptians used rest or mobilization for treating back pain).

35 centuries later I am here, taking a slightly more radical approach to back pain treatment. I am not going to recommend any exercises in this article; we are going to talk about nutrition exclusively.

“You Are What You Eat”
I`m sure you’ve heard this expression so many times before that you simply take it for granted; but did you ever stop to think about it? Most people never do that and as a result we have a huge increase in obesity, cardiovascular diseases, musculoskeletal diseases and an overall decline in general health.

So How Does Your Nutrition Affect Your Back?
The most obvious result of poor nutritional choices is obesity, obviously. According to the most recent report from the American Heart Association, 23.9 million children ages 2-19 are overweight or obese. As we look at the older population things get even worse since among Americans 20 years or older there are 154.7 million overweight or obese people!

These numbers are already staggering and they and growing with each passing year. They are the result of one thing – poor nutrition habits. So what happens when increase weight meets the joints? They suffer, suffer badly. Larger abdomen will pull your body forward and you back will have to arch more to compensate, creating tremendous amounts of stress and leading to poor posture.

So what can you do? Just follow these four simple advises I am sharing with you:

Think about yourself and your body before ordering/making your meal
Eat smaller portions, several times a day
Drink more water and
Move!

Eating Right
I hope that, by now, you started to realize the importance of proper nutrition and making the right choices when it comes to your food. So what now? Now you need to educate yourself and make smarter choices. Don`t beat yourself about what happened in the past, just leave it there and make a deal with yourself that you are going to change.

One of the most important changes you can make is to eat right for your geographic location. If you live near the Equator your diet should consist of about 60% plant food and 40% animal food. And if you live north or south of the Equator, you should reverse this formula and eat 60% animal food and 40% plant food.

Another important thing to mention here is the importance of the quality of your food, you should always go for the organic food of highest quality if you want a healthy body.

Foods which can help you ease your back pain:

Carrots – they are rich in vitamins C and E and will help safeguard your tissue from inflammation and ease neural pain
Broccoli, spinach, and other dark leafy greens will boost calcium deposit in your bones making them stronger and more resistive to injury
Pineapple – its enzymes will help break down the fibrin capsule which forms around acute painful areas, making nutrients more accessible
Devil’s claw – you should be careful when using this plant since it can manifest some side effects such as nausea and increased heart beat but it is proven to help relieve chronic lower back pain, release muscle tension and even help with arthritis
Cold Water Fish – some recent research shows that using EPA and DHA (natural compounds found in fish) will reduce pain and inflammation more effectively than prescription NSAID pain medication
Berries – berries as known for their powerful antioxidants which help the body control inflammation, boost immune system and fight off disease

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