How to Fight back pain with food?

In this first lesson we will consider the relation between what you put in your body, and how your body reacts to it. And in our case, look into how this can relate to back pain. We know that somewhere between 80-90% of us will experience lower back pain once or more in our life time.

There is not enough scientific evidence yet to claim that one particular diet will cure or even prevent back pain. One obvious factor that can cause you not only back pain, but pain in general, is of course obesity. We also know that smoking can contribute to this, by thinning of the blood vessels, and thereby preventing blood flow. If your back pain is caused by muscle tightness, you may already know that a nice massage could ease your pain due to increased blood flow to the parts of your that hurts. You could say, you will have almost the same effect if you quit smoking.

So - to the food, can you really eat your pain away?

Let's suppose you are familiar with what kind of food containing the following vitamins and minerals. You can of course take them in form of pills, and if this is for you, I can recommend these full spectrum vitamin/mineral tablets, Centrum Multivitamin and Multimineral Tablets.

Vitamin B12 - have shown to alleviate some forms of back pain, particularly in the lower parts of the back. Why? Well, probably mostly because B12 is important for the nervous system function. It also reduces the risk of heart diseases and strengthens your hair and nails.

Vitamin D - is found in some, fish oils and fortified foods as well. Our bodies is even capable to produce it by itself. But it needs some exposure to the sun, you can have the same effect by only 10 minutes in a sun-studio. Vitamin D is crucial in maintaining healthy, strong bones and eye sight.

Vitamins A, C, and K could also play a role in maintaining a healthy back, but no concrete evidence has been produced yet.

Calcium - the key factor for strong bones. It is found in dairy products, green vegetables (spinach is a very good source, as well as nuts of different kinds).

Magnesium - The mineral is found in many green vegetables, nuts and whole grains. Magnesium is important for strong bones, and most importantly, for building up strong and flexible back muscles.

You should also consider these if you already experience back pain:

Water and even more water! - that is so important to all our cells in the body. Maintaining hydrated cells is important at any age and any stage of life. With age, our intervertebral discs (in the lower back in particular), loose water and dehydration takes place. Therefore it is so important to keep your body hydrated to preserve the moisture left in the discs at all times. 

Some research indicates that 8-10 glasses of water a day could be enough to significantly ease back and pain for up to 80% of the sufferers, including all ages.

Last, but not least, we could also mention Proteins. Proteins are an important factor in building and strengthening the muscle tissue, and thereby enable us to build up our precious back muscles. It is important to keep a balanced diet of high protein foods at all times, this is maybe most important when you are recovering, from injuries leading to back pain. Also, you might want to consider having a look at some well tested products that can relieve back pain.