Is Your Dinner Making Your Back Hurt?

by Manny Aragon

After my workout on Sunday I felt great. But as the day wore on, I began to feel worse and worse. I didn’t sleep well Sunday night -went to bed late and woke up excessively early with nagging back pain which lasted throughout most of the day.

Right out of bed, I started with my usual routine- foam rolling my spine out, doing various yoga poses, stretching my hamstrings, passive hanging from my pull up bar, back bending- all things that usually work if I’m experiencing any discomfort in my back. They worked *a little * but soon enough my back returned to a sub clinical sort of spazm and the discomfort resumed.

After that, I started on the nutritional supplements. Whole food nutritional supplements made from organic, real concentrated nutrition in a pill. I hit the usuall suspects- and because I knew that I was suffering from this discomfort because I had eaten something  that causes me trouble- AND- had had a HUGE blast of the stress induced, highly inflammatory, stress hormone cortisol- from the 1 mile open water swim and subsequent 12.5 mile hilly run the previous day- I knew that my body was inflamed. In a temporary but bad way.

So, I started with the ProBiotics- as they are known to reduce inflammation in the gut by seeding the gut with anti inflammatory bacteria. Then, I made sure that I was eating additional digestive enzymes with each meal ( as they help my body properly break down the food that I eat)  so that it is properly prepared to be absorbed and does not fester in the gut causing inflammation and gas.

I took food based minerals to calm my nervous system- possibly inflamed from the previous days excessive activity. I took Calcium Lactate- an easily absorbed muscular calcium to replenish my muscular calcium and stave off any cramped or seized muscles.

 

I took an anti inflammatory protein shake made with anti inflammatory coconut milk to sooth my gut and internal environment.

And these kind of worked.

Kinda.

But I didn’t stop there- No- I made absolute sure that the foods that I ate today were all from the Anti Inflammatory Foods list and not from the Pro Inflammatory Foods list. This one was the most important step in resolving the discomfort I had suffered from Sunday afternoon and evening and part of today. That worked MUCH better.

You see- I KNEW the thing I had eaten on Saturday night at my friends birthday party was one of my new discoveries. An epiphany that has changed my life and my relationship to this particular, somewhat innocuous, yet ubiquitous food.

 

You see- the dinner party was at a local sushi restaurant. Now fish, especially cold water fish, are rich in anti inflammatory omega 3 oils, are easily digestible, and are generally a fantastic source of protein. But this fish came wrapped in and surrounded by my newly discovered nemesis- Sushi Rice. Now sushi rice doesn’t sound particularly sinister but it is to my gut and to my muscles.

Sushi rice?

Not rice in general?

No- rice in general- but SUSHI RICE is by far the worst one for me. It is the one that makes my whole body tighten up asymmetrically- twisting my body and making me hurt.

Now I’ve done a little bit of experimentation with different types of rice. Long Grain brown rice doesn’t seem too bad- and either is Basmati Rice. I can still feel an effect-

For example, last week, I took my kids out to the local Persian take out for Kebob (it always comes with a TON of Basmati rice). Since, at that time, I was still not completely sure of the effect that rice had on me- I had some rice with my kebob. Well, not some…I had A LOT.

And everything seemed cool that night. Though I didn’t sleep well and woke up early and tired the next morning. The kicker was that my right gluteus medius (side of the hip muscle) was seized up- torqueing my hips. I was able to physically work the muscle out and it let go- BUT- after that – I KNEW- that rice was not good for me.

So- fast forward to today- I am in full triage mode here- Ive taken all kinds of supplements for various aspects of what I perceive to be the problem- but I realized that I was all out of the big guns- the stuff I bring out when all else fails and I just really need some extra help.

So, I placed an order and picked up the following: and emulsified fish oil based liquid vitamin D (Ultra D), an emulsified preparation of turmeric (Turmero), and an emulsified preparation of Resveratol (Resvero).

As you may know all three (fish oil, turmeric, and resveratol) are renowned anti inflammatories and the emulsified forms are many times up to five times more effective than non emulsified preparations.

But when used together, Tumero, Resvero, and Ultra D have a synergistic effect over 35 times more powerful than taking a normal preparation of any one of the three alone.

THAT is what finally did the trick. My back is “back to normal” now. I am sleepy and ready for bed. I am happy it worked AND I am happy I had these amazing tools in my apothecary.

To find out what foods YOU may be reactive to, call my office at (949) 954-6225 and book an appointment for an Initial Nutritional Assessment.  Your problem may not be as complicated as you think. It may be what you are eating and I can test for it quickly…