At our practice, we want to give you the best chance to heal and be as healthy as possible and prevent inflammation. We look at health holistically and understand that sometimes pain, whether it be acute or chronic, also needs to be addressed outside the realm of biomechanics. Proper nutrition is one of the biggest things that we can do for ourselves long (or short) term to help heal injuries. Something that ties into this nutritional piece is inflammation. If someone has a high-inflammatory diet, they are battling chronic inflammation of their whole body. When fighting the inflammation of your body, you’re not giving yourself the chance to heal appropriately.
Inflammation has a great effect on chronic or overuse injuries. If you consume high inflammatory foods, you can prevent an injury from healing or even cause the injury to occur. Inflammation and healing are inversely correlated: the higher the inflammation in your body, the slower you will heal, and vice versa. If your body is constantly inflamed, you’re not going to be able to stay ahead of the degeneration your body is going through when you use it incorrectly. Conversely, if you have a diet that allows your body to heal, you can actually get ahead of the degeneration and prevent the injury from ever occurring.
So why does inflammation have a negative effect on your ability to heal? One reason is that inflammation greatly diminishes collagen production. If you’re not producing enough collagen, your damaged tendon or ligament (or whatever part of the body is injured) is not going to heal faster than it is breaking down. Certain factors, such as adequate magnesium and hydration, are critical when it comes to collagen formation. Additionally, we need to fuel our bodies so we can properly move while we heal; if there’s a lack of movement during the healing process, the new collagen is laid down haphazardly rather than in the correct pattern for movement.
To give yourself the best chance of healing properly, you need to have a healthy diet. We suggest sticking to an anti-inflammatory diet; that way you’re not constantly fighting yourself with inflammatory factors. This diet consists of staying away from inflammatory foods– mainly omega 6 seed oil, trans fats, grain, flour, and large quantities of sugar. Staying away from these foods and eating foods high in antioxidants (we love avocados and blueberries) will allow your body to stop fighting avoidable inflammation and promote collagen formation. This will give you the best chance of healing properly, and it’s something you can do on your own long-term.
We would love to meet with you and schedule an appointment to get your body in the best shape it can be in. If you have any questions about inflammation or what makes up a health diet. Feel free to reach out.