Can you cure back pain with food?

The answer of course is not exactly but there is good reason to expect the avoidance of some foodstuffs and the enthusiastic consumption of other foods or supplements to help you to become and remain more comfortable if you are suffering from an inflammatory condition.Inflammation is the response of your immune system to an injury or infection. Increased blood circulation to an inflammed tissuebrings antibodies and white blood cells to fight infection as well as  special tissue repair and rebuilding cells.Acute inflammation Inflammation that is between 1 and 7 days old) is a normal process that protects and heals the body following physical injury or infection. However, if the agent causing the inflammation persists for a prolonged period of time, the inflammation becomes chronic. Chronic inflammation can result from a viral or microbial infection, environmental antigen (e.g., pollen), autoimmune reaction, or persistent activation of inflammatory molecules such as might happen if you keep reinjuring the same muscle or joint through poor posture and movement habits.One’s diet can affect inflammatory responses within the body both in a positive and negative direction.Let's take things by food group.

Fats

Sturated fats found in red meat and full fat dairy produce and Trans fats such as those found in some processed foods and margarine are pro-inflammatory in nature. Whereas foods high in mono-unsaturated fats like Olive oil, most nuts, seeds, and fish tend to contain many of nutrients (like omega 3 fatty acids) which are associated with reducing the inflammatory chemical in our body.So eat plenty of fish, walnuts, olive oil, flax seeds to help increase the amount of Omega 3 fatty acids in your body and avoid processed foods, too much red meat and margarine.

Carbohydrates

A diet high in sugar or foods that have a high gylcemic index is likely to make a person more susceptible to inflammation and pain. Glycemic index is the blood glucose-raising potential of the carbohydrates in different foods (how much your blood sugar goes up when you eat something). A more accurate indicator of the rise in blood sugar in response to dietary carbohydrates, however, is glycemic load. Glycemic load incorporates the relative quality of carbohydrates characterized by the glycemic index (how long it takes for a certain type of carbohydrate to break down in our digestive system). Eating high-glycemic index foods results in higher and more rapid increases in blood glucose (sugar) levels than the consumption of low-glycemic index foods.As some of you may remember I am a big fan of Patrick Holford's low GL diet and I would recommend anyone struggling withweight or chronic pain to buy it and follow its principles.As a general rule foods containing lots of refined sugar, chocolate, sweets, biscuits, cakes, jam for example have a high glycemic load meaning that they are converted into glucose in your bloodstream quickly. This is not good in terms of pain and inflammation. Even foods that we consider to be quite healthy such as white pasta, white rice and white bread have a relatively high glycemic load and are better in their less refined brown versions.Fruits vary in their effects, berries have low glycemic load values so you can eat quite a lot of strawberries, rasberries and blueberries without raising your blood sugar too quickly. Grapes, pineapple and any dried fruit however raises blood sugar substantially more quickly and is therefore less desireable if reducing inflammation is your goal.Even potatoes, particularly baked potatoes have a relatively high GL value and should be avoided in favour of lower GL alternatives.

Protein

If you are eating well as described above then your protein intake relating to reduction of inflammation will look after itself. Many of the foods we have already described are good sources of dietary protein.

Vitamins and mineral supplements

The following are considered to be nutrients associated with reducing your susceptability to inflammation.MagnesiumVitamin B6Vitamin CVitamin DVitamin EMultivitamin and mineral supplements taken regularly have been seen to reduce certain predictors of inflammation in our body's by as much as 14%. Studies have shown that large numbers of us are not reaching the Estimated Average Requirement (EAR) for many of these vitamins and minerals.There are of course other supplements on the market that make claims relating to reduction of pain and inflammation, Boswellia, Devils Claw and White Willow are but three. If however you get the basics of your diet correct your need for these rather more exotic substances may be considerably reduced.Lastly I would suggest that water play a big part in your plans to use diet as pain relief. In his book Your Body's Many Cries For Water, Dr F. Batmanghelidj M.D. makes a strong case for dehydration being associated with long term pain.None of the above are a miracle cure by themselves but food can be either medicine or toxin, you get to choose which.Mark Kennedy