Inflammation: How to Aid Your Healing and Recovery

Do You Want to Heal and Recover Faster?

Did you know too much inflammation for too long is a bad thing? It can hinder your recovery, so it is important to help yourselves as much as you can in order to be at your best.

As part of your chiropractic treatment, you should be feeling better and moving better. Once you’ve invested in yourselves to get to this point, we want you to stay feeling great. For a lot of the common conditions we see, the more longer lasting healing actually takes place after your initial phase of care, once your symptoms have improved. It takes time for your body to heal, and many factors can help or hinder this process. It is important to remember that being out of pain doesn’t mean you are healed.

Inflammation is a natural part of healing and tissue repair. This process begins shortly after we have an injury and shouldn’t last more than 2 weeks. We need an initial inflammatory response, however if the body fails to manage this response, we can get long term inflammation which in turn slows down your bodies ability to heal.

The good news is we are able to make a change to this inflammatory cycle and support our bodies natural ability to heal itself without having to take Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs.

Undergoing chiropractic care means working as a team with you chiropractor. We can make adjustments and changes to your body during a treatment, but it’s important you do everything that you can to avoid stress on your body that may slow your healing or set you backwards.

What can you do to help?

Strengthening and keeping mobile will aid your recovery and help minimise re-injury and inflammation.

Physical tips:

-Going for walks and keeping generally active on a daily basis helps to stimulate synovial fluid in your joints. This helps to encourage new nutrients into the joint and flush out waste products.

-Sitting for no longer than 30 minutes at a time helps to reduce stress onto joints and muscles. Sitting for too long leads to the supporting tissues in our body becoming tired. This can lead to increased stress, inflammation, pain and dysfunction.

-Changing your posture on a regular basis when sitting will keep different muscle groups active and change the position of joints. You can try perching on the edge of your seat, sitting with your back supported, bringing your head back on top of your shoulders or try using a wobble cushion. You can purchase a wobble cushion in the clinic!

-Avoid doing the activities or moving into positions that first caused your pain, or may re-aggravate your pain. Only do so once you have discussed this with your practitioner.

-Keep an eye on our instagram page for regular updates on stretches and exercises you can do to keep mobile.

-Follow closely any tips from your practitioner and advice regarding stretches or exercises prescribed. We can’t do these for you, so it is important that you do!

Favourite food tips:

What we eat and drink can either help reduce inflammation and aid health and recovery. Alternatively, it can increase inflammation and slow the recovery.

Omega 3

Omega 3 is an essential long chain fatty acid, containing eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). We cannot produce them ourselves, so have to include them in our diet. They are precursors to molecules that stimulate the resolution of inflammation. Omega 3 fatty acids also play an essential role in the functioning of cell membranes. We need functioning cells to produce healthy tissues in the healing process.

Foods containing omega 3:

• Oily fish such as Mackerel, Salmon, Herring and Sardines.
• Milled Flaxseed, Milled Chia seed, walnuts and soy beans (these contain alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) which your body can covert into lower levels of EPA and DHA, the fatty acids our bodies utilise the most).
• Supplements – these are a great way to ensure you are getting your recommended daily amount of these essential fatty acids. Cytoplan, Vegetology and Nutriadvanced are websites that have good quality supplements, containing EPA and DHA. They offer plant based or animal sourced supplements. All are responsibly sourced.

Antioxidants

Antioxidants are found in abundance in a variety of fruits and vegetables, so be sure to eat a variety of these.

Because antioxidants protect tissues against damage from free radicals, they prevent unwanted inflammatory responses occurring in the first place.

• Extra Virgin Olive Oil – has an antioxidant called Oleocanthal. Its effects have been compared to anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen.
• Tomatoes – contain antioxidants, including vitamin C.
• Grapes, berries and cherries – all contain antioxidants linked to reducing inflammation.

Tumeric and curcumin

The curcumin in turmeric has proven anti-inflammatory properties block the action of inflammatory molecules in the body. Tumeric also contains antioxidants. Combining turmeric with black pepper has been shown to increase curcumin absorption by an impressive 2000%. You can add these into your cooking, drink turmeric teas and take supplements.

Why not help yourself recover and stay healthy by following some of these tips? You have the ability to take your recovery into your own hands. By making small lifestyle adjustments you can maximise the benefits of chiropractic care, reduce any inflammation and promote health and healing.

If you would like some advice or more tips, then please email me on mccoy@tivolichiropractic.co.uk