If your pain has been steadily worsening, you may want to reconsider your eating habits. Some people eat to live, while others eat to live – and still, others are unknowingly feeding their chronic aches and pains. Inflammatory responses can be triggered by eating too much or the wrong foods, which can lead to muscle, nerve, or joint pain.
Certain foods have been known to alleviate inflammation, where some foods can aggravate it. In fact, according to Harvard Health Publishing, “A lot of chronic pain is the result of chronic inflammation, and the evidence is quite strong that your diet can contribute to increased systemic inflammation.”
Although physical and occupational therapists are not nutritionists, providing nutritional advice to patients is an important part of their job. For some chronic conditions, dietary changes can make the biggest difference in reducing or eliminating pain.
Fortunately, you can reverse this trend by adopting a healthy nutritional strategy as part of a holistic physical therapy program. To learn more about physical and occupational therapy, and how they can supplement a healthy, wholesome diet, call our clinic today to schedule an appointment or visit us in Bellevue, WA.
Good nutrition and physical therapy go hand in hand
The good news is that the right foods can help you fight inflammation just as much as the wrong foods can make it worse. Simply switching to a Mediterranean diet can put you on the road to better health and less pain.
Fruits, vegetables, fish, whole grains, and healthy oils like olive oil are all delicious options with high nutritional value and low inflammatory potential in this diet.
Even the spices you use can make a big difference in how comfortable you are; turmeric, for example, is a powerful natural anti-inflammatory. Your physical therapist can advise you on the best dietary changes to make to help you manage your pain.
Another important aspect of pain management is weight management. Your physical therapy plan may include recommendations on how many calories you should consume, what kinds of foods you should eat to avoid getting fat, and any other necessary changes to your eating schedule or patterns.
Increasing your physical activity will aid you in getting the most out of your new diet. Strength training, for example, increases your metabolic rate, allowing your body to burn calories more efficiently.
Other physical and occupational therapy techniques to relieve chronic aches and pains will help you become more mobile, allowing you to increase your workouts, lose weight, and relieve stress on your joints and tissues.
How is pain linked to what I’m eating?
How many times have you heard the adage “you are what you eat?” This statement is true in a number of ways, including some that are quite painful.
Inflammatory responses and chronic pain are known to be triggered or aggravated by certain foods. If you consume the following foods on a regular basis, you may be doing yourself more harm than good:
- Caffeinated foods and drinks
- White bread or other highly-processed carbs
- Alcohol
- Foods heavy in processed sugars and/or trans fats (including cookies, donuts, and margarine)
- Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, and other members of the nightshade family
- Red meat
These foods can harm you in a variety of ways. Sugar and aspartame, for example, raise insulin levels while also increasing pain sensitivity.
Caffeine and tomatoes both increase acidity in the body, which promotes inflammatory pain. However, the bottom line for all of these foods (and a few others) is the same: an increase in your aches and pains. In addition to increasing your pain, poor dietary and nutritional choices can also increase your waistline.
This extra weight can hasten joint degeneration and make arthritis pain worse. It can also put an undue amount of strain on your muscles as they try to support your heavier body. Obesity can promote the development of bulging or herniated discs, which can lead to neurological problems like sciatica.
What should I eat to combat pain conditions?
There are a number of common conditions in America that are directly related to diet and nutrition.
Here are some conditions in which nutritional advice will likely be a part of the patient’s physical therapy regimen:
- Inflammation. Vegetable oils and other inflammatory foods are commonly found in American diets. This can aggravate inflammation-related pain. To help manage pain, a physical therapist may recommend a diet rich in antioxidants and anti-inflammatory foods.
- Obesity. Pain-related to obesity can become a vicious cycle. You see, the more overweight a person is, the more pain they experience in their joints which may cause them to be more sedentary. Lack of physical exercise causes them to gain more weight, which leads to more pain.
- Osteoarthritis. Obese patients are more likely to develop arthritis, especially in the knee. Once a person has been diagnosed with osteoarthritis of the knee, managing their weight becomes the most important key to managing arthritis and pain.
- Autoimmune disorders. The combined total of various autoimmune disorder patients (such as Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and rheumatoid arthritis) now outnumber cancer patients in America by a wide margin. Autoimmune disorders are frequently linked directly to deficiencies in a patient’s diet.
- Diabetes. Diabetes and pre-diabetes are precursors to more serious illnesses like heart disease, kidney disease, and blindness. Neuropathic pain is experienced by more than 90% of diabetic patients. Diet and nutrition will be crucial in the treatment of these illnesses.
Call our clinic today to schedule an appointment
There are so many different ways to begin introducing healthy eating habits into your lifestyle. Making this choice, along with participating in a regular physical therapy program, could change your life for the better in ways you’ve never imagined possible!
Call our clinic today to learn more and schedule your appointment today.
