What to Do When Your Back Hurts

Many patients visit their doctors because back pain is diminishing their quality of life. If you’re one of millions of people whose back often hurts, you have more options than just living with it or depending on over-the-counter pain relief.

Why Your Back Hurts

The 5 most common causes of back pain are:

1. Muscle Strains

A muscle strain could be the reason your back hurts. Oftentimes, you might not even know what caused the strain or spasm. You may twist wrong in your desk or wake up with the pain. Either way, muscle strains can severely impact your quality of life.

2. Herniated Disc

A herniated disc often results from trauma such as a car accident or a physical strain such as lifting a too-heavy object. Bulging discs can cause pain, muscle weakness, tingling, muscle spasms, and shooting or radiating pain.

3. Arthritis

Joint swelling around the neck, spine, and hip area could be another reason your back hurts. Symptoms of arthritic back pain include back pain that comes and goes, limited range of motion, numbness or tingling in the back, and stiffness upon waking.

4. Sciatica

A pinched sciatic nerve can cause chronic back pain. The most common symptom associated with sciatica, however, is pain in one leg. The pain can be a combination of shooting, numbing, and tingling. Discomfort in the buttock and hip area is also experienced. A sharp, searing pain in the hip, buttock, and leg that comes and goes indicates sciatica. 

5. Spinal Stenosis

Spinal stenosis occurs as a person ages and the discs begin to become drier and start to bulge. This disease can be caused by a herniated disc, a congenital defect, bone disease, or injury to the nerve roots.

What to Do When Your Back Hurts

1. Stretch

One of the easiest ways to treat chronic back pain is by continuing to keep your body limber through stretching exercises. Each day, make a point to gently stretch muscle group while breathing deeply through your nose. Yoga is a type of moving meditation that can help improve your muscle strength, mobility, and circulation.

2. Bathe

Soaking in a hot bath filled with one or two cups of Epsom salts and lavender oil can do wonders for back pain. Epsom salts are magnesium sulfate and they work to draw out the lactic acid that builds up in sore, overworked muscles.

Note: If you are pregnant, diabetic, or allergic to sulfur, do not use Epsom salt except under the advice of a physician.

3. Massage

Massage therapy is a wonderful natural way to treat your chronic back pain. Regular massage improves your circulation and helps release toxins in your body. Massage also helps boost those feel-good chemicals called serotonin while reducing the stress hormone, cortisol.

4. Eat

You really can eat your way to less back pain. The more processed food you eat, the worse your chronic inflammation. So load up on organic vegetables, fruits, whole grains, meat, poultry, and wild-caught fish such as Alaskan salmon. Good fats like coconut oil, butter, olive oil, and avocado lubricate the joints and ease swelling and pain.

5. Supplement

Adding natural supplements to your diet can also help limit the amount of times your back hurts.

The best supplements for back pain include:

• Boswellia

Boswellia is a natural herb that works similarly to NSAID pain relievers but without the side effects. Boswellia works by reducing a substance called matrix metalloproteinase-3, which breaks down cartilage. For maximum absorption, take it with a meal that includes healthy fats.

• Krill Oil

Krill oil is an essential fatty acid that helps reduce pro-inflammatory chemicals and ease joint pain and chronic inflammation. This sustainable fish oil also helps reduce feelings of anxiety and restlessness associated with chronic pain.

• Arnica

Arnica is a perennial herb in the daisy family. It can be taken sublingually as a homeopathic remedy for back pain or used as a cream. When your back hurts, try running arnica gel at the site of the pain. Arnica reduces inflammation, repairs damaged tissue, and reduces swelling.

• Magnesium

According to statistics, millions of people are deficient in this vital mineral. One of the primary symptoms of magnesium deficiency is chronic pain and inflammation. Adding a chelated magnesium supplement to your diet not only reduces pain but improves quality of sleep, which is vital when dealing with any kind of chronic pain condition.

NSAID pain relievers and prescription steroids can cause serious side effects. The next time your back hurts, consider your natural options. You’ll be amazed at how much better you’ll feel. 

Image courtesy of Ambro/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

5 Causes of Chronic Inflammation

When you live with chronic inflammation, every day can be so hard to live through. As a chronic pain sufferer, it can sometimes be difficult to even get through the day without giving up. Once you understand the 5 common causes of chronic inflammation, you’ll be better able to keep it under control.

Chronic Inflammation – The Healing Process Gone Wrong

Inflammation is a natural part of your body’s healing process. When you become sick or injured, pro-inflammatory chemicals go to work to protect your body and perform cellular repair.

This type of inflammation is normal and goes away once the injury or sickness has been healed.

Chronic inflammation occurs when the immune system stays on high alert, protecting your body like a band of insomniac soldiers high on steroids and energy drinks.

Symptoms of Chronic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is one of those things that kind of sneaks up on you. For example, you’ve been in a car accident and injured your shoulder. The pain and inflammation you feel is normal but should be only temporary. It goes away for a bit only to come back with a vengeance and start spreading to the rest of your back.

Within a few weeks or months, more symptoms develop such as:

• Chronic fatigue
• Ongoing joint and muscle pain
• Frequent infections 
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• High blood pressure
• Gingivitis
• Eczema and psoriasis
• Allergies/hay fever
• Food intolerance
• Brain fog 

Chronic Inflammation – 5 Common Causes

Chronic inflammation is usually brought on by a severe illness, trauma or physical injury. This inflammation is then perpetuated by certain dietary and lifestyle factors.

These factors include:

1. Diet

What you eat has a direct effect on how much chronic pain you feel on a daily basis. Processed food is filled with toxic chemicals, additives, dyes, and synthetic sweeteners that force your immune system to stay on high alert defending you. All of these chemicals are horrible for your health and will only make your chronic inflammation much worse.

In order to stave off chronic inflammation, you must eat anti-inflammatory foods. This means whole foods like organic vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, legumes, seeds, poultry, and wild-caught non-GMO salmon.

Also, a key component in chronic inflammation is food intolerance. Gluten and lactose foods are pro-inflammatory and often make chronic pain conditions worse. Try cutting gluten and lactose products from your diet for a period of 8 weeks to see if symptoms improve.

Corn, soy, and red meat are also pro-inflammatory, especially when grown or raised conventionally. Most corn and soy is genetically modified, which means every time you eat them, you’re putting pesticides in your body. Conventionally-raised beef are filled with antibiotics, growth hormones, and pesticides best avoided by any chronic pain sufferer.

2. Vitamin Deficiencies

A poor diet and poor digestion often contribute to vitamin deficiencies. Vitamin D deficiency and magnesium deficiency are the two most common nutrient deficiencies in the United States and Canada. Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a weakened immune system and magnesium deficiency often cause neurological problems. Omega 3 fatty acid deficiency is another contributor to chronic inflammation.

3. Toxins

Toxins are a commonly-overlooked contributor to chronic inflammation. Everything from the make-up you wear to the cleaning products you clean your home with are filled with poisons that keep your immune system working overtime.

For example, Triclosan. Triclosan is a synthetic antibacterial agent that has been linked to hormone disruption, thyroid disease, neurological disturbances, infertility, and autoimmune disease. Formaldehyde, commonly found in cleaning products, has been associated with severe allergic reaction, weakened immune system, and lymphatic cancers.

4. Stress

If you’ve ever heard the term, “stress kills”, it’s absolutely true. When you’re body is over-stressed and over-tired, your adrenal glands work overtime to pump pro-inflammatory chemicals like cortisol, epinephrine, and norepinephrine into your body. It’s a leading and oft-overlooked cause of chronic inflammation.

5. Insomnia

When you’re in pain you can’t sleep and when you can’t sleep you experience more pain. It’s a vicious cycle. This is why people who live with chronic inflammation should invest in a good quality chelated magnesium supplement. Magnesium helps ease neurological distress and improves quality of sleep.

You don’t have to live with the pain of chronic inflammation anymore. Treat the symptoms of inflammation by understanding the cause. Remember, diet is very important. Once you begin sticking to an anti-inflammatory diet you’ll be amazed at how much better you feel!

Salmon Fights Chronic Inflammation

Salmon is good for chronic inflammation but only if you choose the right kid. Find out how you can eat your way to better health.

What is Chronic Inflammation?

Inflammation is a normal part of the healing process when you’re sick or injured. It is the immune system’s way of protecting the injured area and regenerating new cells. However, when inflammation becomes chronic, the body attacks healthy cells and debilitating disease results.

Symptoms of Chronic Inflammation

Do any of these symptoms sound familiar to you?

• Frequent infections
• Digestive problems
• Chronic fatigue
• Eczema/psoriasis
• Aches and pains
• Sinus problems
• Swelling/stiffness
• Weight gain/obesity
• Dry eyes/mouth

Salmon - Good for Chronic Inflammation

Chronic inflammation is usually the result of poor diet, food allergies, low stomach acid, prescription drugs, vaccinations, trauma, and stress. When your digestion is poor and your inflammation is up, there are certain foods you have to avoid and others you should load your plate with. To beat chronic inflammation, you need to eliminate all processed foods from your diet right away and eat whole foods instead.

One of the best whole foods you can eat is salmon. Salmon is a salt water fish that helps fight chronic inflammation with its rich content of essential omega 3 fatty acids. When salmon feed on red algae, they absorb astaxanthin into their muscle tissues. This powerful antioxidant helps heal the body on a deep cellular level.

Eating salmon reduces chronic inflammation by inhibiting pro-inflammatory proteins called cytokines. The bioactive peptides in salmon protect delicate joint and muscle tissue while stabilizing the balance of cartilage and minerals in the body’s tissues.

Salmon also helps treat the mood swings and depression associated with chronic inflammation by reducing brain inflammation and improving overall cognitive function.

The Wrong Salmon Makes Chronic Inflammation Worse

You don’t want farm-raised fish. Farm-raised salmon is filled with antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, additives, preservatives, and colorants that wreck havoc with your immune system. If you eat farm-raised salmon, you’re only going to make your chronic inflammation that much worse.

Organic Wild-Caught Alaskan Salmon – The Best Fish to Eat

In order to reap the health benefits of salmon, it is important you choose the right kind. Wild-caught organic Alaskan salmon is the best type of salmon money can buy. It is filled with high doses of healing omega-3 acids your body can easily absorb and make use of. It contains no colorants, hormones, antibiotics, fillers or binders. Just pure nutrition your aching body so desperately needs.

The scary thing about buying salmon from a grocery store is you’re never really sure what you’re going to get. Even if it says “wild-caught” on the package, you could still be bringing home fish that’s been raised on a farm.

That means even if you think you’re eating healthy, you’re actually getting antibiotics and pesticides in every bite! This is especially true if you purchase salmon during the winter months.

If you want to beat chronic inflammation, you have to let your medicine be your food. This means purchasing your wild-caught salmon from a reputable and trusted source. Vital Choice offers a wide variety of 100% organic products for you and your family.

You don’t have to live with chronic pain and inflammation. A whole new world of health and happiness can be yours when you heal your body through the right diet.

Don’t suffer any longer. Get started today.