What Role Does Nutrition Play In Pain Management
What you eat is essential to your overall health, including how your body manages and reacts to pain. In honor of National Nutrition Month, it’s helpful to understand how your nutrition may be contributing to or affecting your pain management.
Relationship Between Nutrition And Pain
There are three main factors associated with the relationship between nutrition and pain.
- Your diet affects your nervous, immune, and endocrine systems, all affecting how you experience pain.
- Your diet affects your weight, impacting joint health and inflammation.
- Your diet and weight also play a part in your risk of various chronic conditions, such as diabetes and heart disease, which may come with chronic pain.
Nutrition Tips For Managing And Reducing Pain
Whether you’re trying to maintain your weight, reduce pain, improve your immune system, or improve your overall health and wellness, these nutrition tips can help.
- Focus on a well-rounded diet. A well-rounded diet means eating foods with nutritional value. While it’s okay to have the occasional frozen dinner or processed pastry, try to eat lots of lean meats, whole grains, and fresh produce when possible.
- Incorporate foods with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. Foods with antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties help to reduce inflammation, which can reduce pain. Foods rich in these nutrients include blueberries, spinach, broccoli, and kale.
- Stay hydrated. Everyone can do with drinking more water. Staying hydrated can reduce pain by protecting the cartilage surrounding your joints.
- Limit alcohol. There is no nutritional value to alcohol. It’s a substance that causes more harm than good, including gut inflammation and dysfunction of organs such as the brain and liver.
Pain Management at Mocek Spine
If you’re suffering from chronic pain, whether it’s severe or moderate, the team at Mocek Spine Clinic is available to help.
The Mocek Spine Clinic offers advanced, patient-centered spine care solutions. Dr. Mocek will work directly with you and your family to design a treatment plan to get you back to your daily routine with the least amount of pain possible. Contact us today to schedule an appointment.