If you have low back prob­lems, you’re ready to do nearly any­thing to get some relief.

If you see your med­ical doc­tor, you may get a pre­scrip­tion for some “help­ful” drugs.  The com­mon types of drugs pre­scribed for low back pain are:

• non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAID’s),
• mus­cle relax­ants, and
• opi­ate pain relievers.

None of these directly attack the under­ly­ing cause of your back prob­lem.  And each of them has the poten­tial for harm­ful side effects.

For­tu­nately, there are nutri­tion sup­ple­ments that some author­i­ties believe to be effec­tive at reliev­ing pain, lim­it­ing inflam­ma­tion, and rebuild­ing healthy tis­sues.  And what’s even bet­ter is that the side effects of these nutri­tion prod­ucts are pos­i­tive ones.  Instead of swal­low­ing chem­i­cals that try to over­ride your body’s phys­i­o­log­i­cal processes, your body will be get­ting the build­ing blocks you need for health.

Here are your most impor­tant nutri­tional pain fighters:

• Essen­tial fatty acids

The bal­ance of fatty acids that most Amer­i­cans con­sume is so far out of whack that you’re prone to pain and inflam­ma­tion.  Many peo­ple take sup­ple­men­tal fish oil to address this imbal­ance.  And there are sup­ple­ments that com­bine marine oils with ben­e­fi­cial oils from plants (bor­age, flax seed, and others.)

But unless you dras­ti­cally cut back your intake of harm­ful veg­etable oils — corn oil, sun­flower oil, saf­flower oil, canola oil, to name a few — you’ll never get your fatty acids in bal­ance.   These oils are widely used in processed and pre­pared foods.  Be aware!

• Vit­a­min D

Shock­ingly, one-third to one-half of Amer­i­cans may be defi­cient in vit­a­min D.   And, since low lev­els of D are cor­re­lated with chronic pain, those with low back prob­lems are even more likely to be short of this impor­tant vitamin.

• Anti-inflammatory herbs: boswellia, cur­cumin, and white wil­low bark

These herbs are thought to have an anti-inflammatory effect, lim­it­ing pain and speed­ing tis­sue heal­ing.  Use them in combination.

• Glu­cosamine sulfate

Glu­cosamine is a build­ing block for the car­ti­lage that forms the discs between the bones of the low back.  Many experts believe that using glu­cosamine as a sup­ple­ment reduces pain and rebuilds a health­ier back in the long run.

• Pro­te­olytic enzymes

These are enzymes which are used to digest the pro­teins in our diet.  Brome­lain (found in mango) and papain (from pineap­ple) are two exam­ples.  If you take them with a meal, they’ll work in your stom­ach to help process the pro­teins you’re eat­ing.  But if you take them in between meals, their effect will bypass the stom­ach and help alle­vi­ate pain and swelling in injured areas of your body.

More infor­ma­tion?  Con­tact Dr. Lavine at drlavine@yourbodyofknowledge.com

Deepen Your Body of Knowledge

Anti-inflammatory diet to fight back pain