fitness

There are three causes of chronic inflammation resulting in back pain us: 

 This is the swelling found in muscles, bones, discs, nerves, and posture, and it is the most obvious and easy-to-understand culprit During the day, our bodies undergo an almost endless list of physical stressors—whether it be from lugging bags, commuting, sitting all day in uncomfortable chairs in an office, walking in unsupportive footwear. All of these things cause irritation and inflammation. Those in the medical field currently spend the large majority of their resources on diagnosing and treating back pain us for structural causes alone. Unfortunately, based on back pain statistics, the treatment results are quite unsuc-cessful, proving that our laser-focus on just structural inflammation is an incomplete approach to treatment. 

 In a landmark study, re-searchers at Stanford University discovered that stress combined with emotional outlook was the number one factor for back pain us. When our bodies are under pro-longed periods of stress, our levels of cortisol, known as our stress hormone, spike, triggering the inflammatory response and causing our mind and back to become uptight. Our society has ever so slowly acknowledged the role our emotional tension is having on our backs. Therapeutic practices such as mindfulness and medita-tion are becoming more and more commonplace, and therapy is viewed as a helpful treatment for back pain us. 

 This area is most lacking in medical research. It is also the area least understood or acknowledged by back pain suffer-ers—and is consequently the impetus for The Back Pain Relief Diet. The remainder of this chapter will deal spe-cifically with nurturing a better understanding of the role of digestive inflammation in our daily lives and the extent to which it can harm your body. 

The world of digestive upsets is not a welcoming one. You may be aware that you have a sensitive stomach, but you may not realize how far-reaching the chemical effects are on the rest of your body. Our bodies react to what we eat or drink with a viscerosomatic response. Viscero means "organ"; somatic refers to the body—in this case, the musculoskeletal system. Some of what we consume is soothing to the body; some irritates it and causes pain. This viscerosomatic response to what we eat can range from being alert after morning coffee, to feeling sleepy from the tryptophan in turkey; to getting an upset stomach from something acidic, to developing back pain us. Have you ever been hung over? You proba-bly remember the headache, as well as the upset stomach. But try to recall: how did your muscles feel? Loose and limber or tight and achy? You probably didn't feel like exercising nor would you have a good workout if you tried. This was a viscerosomatic reaction to alcohol and is an example of what happens to your body over time with foods that create inflammation. Because there isn't usually an immediate reaction to the wrong foods unless you have a food allergy—such as lactose intolerance, for instance—the connection isn't often made. In fact, the most overlooked cause of back pain is diet While there are thousands of studies on how nutrition im-pacts muscular function, very few health professionals have con-nected the dots between digestive function and nutrition to back pain us. Chronic pain, particularly in the back can be tied to body inflammation. This is not the kind of inflammation or swelling you see with an acute injury, but instead chronic inflammation can occur internally throughout the body in response to a poor diet that results in low digestive function. 

Studies confirm that there is an association between back pain us and being overweight or obese. The correlation seems obvious: the more you weigh, the more your bones—especially the spine—must bear. Interestingly, some studies also suggest that the asso-ciation may not be only musculoskeletal, but that obesity-related stomach inflammation caused by the toxicity of unhealthy eat-ing may also play a role in low back pain us. Therefore, recommen-dations for a healthful diet to help treat back pain for anyone who is overweight or obese are warranted. In a 1995 report published in The Lancet, researchers in Fin-land corroborated this perspective when they conducted autop-sies on people who died from non-related back issues but who were on record as having suffered from back pain. What they discovered was that people who had suffered from back pain us had many more blocked arteries to the spine than people who never had back pain troubles. This was proof that poor diet choices can and do clog arteries!