What Else Can You Do To Help Yourself Get Better Quicker & Control Your Pain?

Below is some information on things you can do from a nutritional perspective, to try and help yourself when you have pain or an acute injury.

Pain and the healing process pose a massive demand on the body’s resources, which if chronic can exhaust the key building blocks and catalysts for repair. Supplements can be taken at this stage to help reduce pain, reduce inflammation, promote tissue healing and increase energy. If you choose then in later stages of you chiropractic care we can go into more detail about the benefits of nutrition for your general health.

We recommend different supplements depending on the severity and nature of your problem and what you are able to afford. As is usual with most things you get what you pay for.

A broad based “shotgun” approach to assist your basic biochemical needs at this time and to help recovery. These supplements will help repair damaged soft tissue and joints and help reduce inflammation. These should be taken for at least 4-8 months after an attack and possibly at regular intervals after that to help the body maintain itself.

Vitamins and minerals such as zinc, manganese, vitamin C and glucosamine sulphate are used by the body to help form collagen which is used to make ligaments, tendons, discs and the lining of the joints. Every cell your body makes uses omega-3 fatty acids, these also help to reduce inflammation. Other minerals and herbs can be used to help reduce muscle spasm.

Good quality multi-vitamin mineral – usually the more expensive one’s as these are more likely to be formulated to provide the right amount of minerals in the correct balance and in a form that is absorbed by the human gut. We stock two, a basic quality “nuts and bolts” formula and a more expensive “nuts and bolts, bells and whistles” formula.

Glucosamine Sulphate (1500mg daily) or 2000mg of Glucosamine Sulphate KCl. We recommend that you don’t buy “Glucosamine” or Chondroitin formulas Chondroitin only has a 13% absorption rate and therefore does not represent value for money and of the Glucosamines only Glucosmaine Suplhate KCl is effective in helping joints. We stock Glucosamine Sulphate KCl in a capsule form which is marginally more expensive to make but we are told it is better absorbed.

Fish oil– good quality source of omega 3 fatty acid (don’t buy cod liver oil for this purpose as it is relatively low in omega 3s though it is good as a source of Vitamin A and D, particular during winter in the Northern Hemisphere, if you’re not getting any from a multivitamin). Good quality fish oils are sourced from anchovies and sardines, fished from the most pristine waters and packaged with natural anti-oxidants to maximise freshness. Vegetarians could use Udo Oil, or equivalent from a good health food store.

For most peoples’ problems the above nutritional advice is sufficient for recovery. If there is not the normal rate of recovery then one possibility is that we can go into to more depth with nutritional approaches to promote healing.

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