The Anti-Inflammatory Diet
Marion Hauser, M.S, R.D.

Q: Your newsletter recommends an “anti-inflammatory diet”, while stating that it is inflammation that heals the body. Your newsletter also states to not take anti-inflammatories? I’m confused!

A: This is actually a very interesting question. First of all, let me explain to our readers about inflammation: Inflammation is the process by which the body heals – particularly related to Caring Medical’s clinic, soft tissue injuries, including injuries to connective tissues, ligaments, and tendons.

So inflammation that heals the body is actually a good thing. Inflammation helps heal injuries and protect us from infection.  But uncontrolled, inflammation can be deadly.

Anti-inflammatory medication and corticosteroids block this process. Prolotherapy, our mainstay treatment for chronic painful conditions, on the other hand, provides the stimulus that is needed to bring in healing fibroblasts and allow them to proliferate (where Prolo comes from) and lay down new collagen fibers. This causes the connective tissue, ligaments, and tendons to become thicker and stronger. Thus, Prolotherapy stimulates the normal inflammatory-reparative mechanisms of the body, encouraging normal collagen and extracellular matrix growth.

Inflammatory Foods
The foods you eat play an important role in how you feel as we have talked about in many of our newsletters. Consuming huge amounts of junk foods and fast foods tend to make you feel worse due to the unhealthy fats and chemicals that are used in the cooking and packaging processes.

Patients require protein to rebuild injured tissue and foods such as meat, poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, and nuts contain great sources of protein.

Whole vegetables and some fruit are important for their vitamins, minerals, and natural antioxidants that aid the healing process. We recommend that you follow the appropriate Hauser Diet in order to get the most out of your food and produce the best energy.

Watch what you are eating and monitor if you feel better or worse with the foods you eat. You’ll be surprised! Yes, ice cream can cause knee pain!

As mentioned above, many people have delayed reactions to food that may increase inflammation and pain. These types of “food allergies” may not be allergies like hayfever, but they do involve the immune system and can make pain and inflammation worse. Frequently the underlying problem is due to faulty digestion or excessive consumption of any particular food. Most any food that is consumed more than 4 days a week might be suspected as a possible allergen, but some of the more common allergic foods are milk and dairy, wheat, corn, eggs, beef, yeast, and soy. Even “healthy” foods can cause problems. We can test your blood to determine if you have this problem, or you could just go on an elimination diet to determine the allergic foods.

Water and Dehydration
We often find dehydration to be a factor related to level of pain in our patients. When you do not drink enough water, you tend to hurt more, consequently, you feel worse. Make sure to drink at least 6-8 glasses of water every day. Avoid heavy caffeine and alcohol consumption because they contain diuretics that may cause your body to lose water.