Well, I told you in the previous blog that I would be sharing a few of our secret weapons to deal with pain. Before getting too far along, please understand that pain, for the most part, is an inflammatory reaction to tissue injury. Nearly every disease and disorder that is known to man started as an inflammatory situation or at least has an inflammatory component that it is keeping things on fire! So things that injury body tissue brings about inflammation. This isn’t always from physical activity or traumatic events….

With this in mind, that amount of pain that a person feels or suffers from is usually due to the amount of inflammation they have in their body. One reference I read stated that there are basically two types of inflammation- silent inflammation, which destroys the joints and tissues of your body, but does so without causing pain, and screaming inflammation- this is the stuff that gets your attention because it hurts! A lot!

Obviously, the best way to deal with this is to make sure you eat a de-flammatory diet every day, or certainly as often as you can each meal. The foods you eat can injure your body’s tissues. Notice I did not say, anti-inflammatory diet. We need to get away from this idea that inflammation is bad. It is very necessary and is needed to kill dead or dying cells, kill bad bacteria and viruses and to signal the anti-inflammation process which is how your body heals. Too much inflammation is a bad thing, but the right amount is a good thing.

Our next secret weapon, and if you think chiropractors have difficulty getting patients to follow through on a 36 visit treatment program after they feel better, try to get them to eat a de-flammatory diet when they are not in pain or haven’t had any real pain for some time. That being said, here is our next secret weapon:

     4. Eat a de-flammatory diet. There is a great book by David Seaman, D.C  called The Deflame Diet.   We have it at our office, or you can purchase it however you purchase books. It is very easy to understand and simple book and a must-have for anyone who wishes to be healthy and avoid a whole lot of unnecessary pain.

Essentially, there are only 4 things one really needs to avoid, and one can eat almost anything save the four things or those things that have one or more of the 4 things in them;

       a. Processed flour- This wheat and corn, you know, flour even the gluten-free stuff. Coconut and almond

          flours are okay, not the flour found in the typical American diet.

       b. Sugar- You knew that was going to be there!

       c. Polyunsaturated vegetable oils. These are vegetable oils- the ones you’ve been told your

           whole life is good for you- safflower, sunflower, corn oils to name a few.

       d. Trans-fats. These are hydrogenated, or partially hydrogenated oils. No good.

Saturated fats which we’ve all been told to avoid, like those found in meat are actually deflammatory and good for you. You really should just get the book and check it out!

     5. Lose Weight. Being overweight, and the damage that the food a person eats to get there is definitely inflammatory. That belly fat is inflammatory, the fat in your muscles and organs such as your liver, heart, and kidneys is definitely inflammatory and will eventually kill you.  So exercise, a deflammatory diet, and stress control are mammoth to reducing inflammatory pain. We would be very happy to help you along these lines. In our office is a machine that will measure your total body composition- takes less than a minute, and will tell us how much of your body is water, whether or not the water is inside or outside of the cells, how much is lean muscle mass and organs, and of course how much is fat. We can target whatever needs to be addressed to make the changes you need. Just let us know!

     6. Specialized Pro-Resolving Mediators (SPM). This is an incredible product and you really owe it to yourself to research SPMs on the internet. What do they do? They resolve, get that RESOLVE inflammatory situations that you might have in your body. Again, get away from anti-inflammation and that whole concept- you want resolution. These SPMs could be a whole blog, or 2 so check them out, or ask us about them at your next visit.

This is amazing stuff. Great for un-resolved, chronic inflammatory pain! Along with SPMs we have a number of other natural products which really help heal injured tissues- including your internal organs. Once they are injured your immune system will attack the organs of your body- not good! If you have any questions about this, please ask Dr. Diane.

Well, it looks like I’ve run out of space, so I’ll have to tell you more about some other amazing secret weapons in a future blog.

Take home message? What you put in your mouth can heal you, or it will kill you, slowly over a painfully long period of time. We can help!