What if I told you that improving your nutrition and lifestyle choices can improve your pain?

We have all experienced it.  Joint pain…soreness in your back or neck.  What if I told you that improving your nutrition and lifestyle choices ( ie- sleep, hydration, stress management) can improve your pain?

Hi!! I am Shannon Yundt, PT, DPT, FNLP, CNC.  I am a Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner and  Physical Therapist practicing with patients for the last 26 years . What I have found is patients can be stuck in a chronic cycle of pain in their joints and not understand why.  Our medical system may put a band aid on it by prescribing NSAIDS and pain killers, but all the while no one is getting to the root of the problem.  It was my recent certification in Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle that opened my eyes to the impact of these 2 elements- nutrition and lifestyle- that significantly affect our joints.

How can nutrition affect our pain?

Nutrition affects our joints and our bodies in 2 ways. 

Let’s Talk about a Leaky Gut. Leaky gut is a condition that allows the food and gut microbiome contents to uncontrollably leak into your bloodstream.  Once these foreign objects are in the bloodstream, it can activate an immune system attack targeting those floating foreign particles.  This triggers an attack on your organ systems and joints resulting in inflammation and joint pain.  Unfortunately, the SAD ( Standard American Diet) has caused this damage to  the lining of this digestive tract and killed off the many important “gut bugs” we need to break down the food we are eating into smaller particles.  

 Let’s talk about SUGAR-   Due to the SAD, the average American consumes 125g of sugar a day and the recommended daily allotment of sugar is 25g per day.  When we take in a large amount of sugar in a meal, the body is flooded with a large amount of work to do to process this sugar.  The sugar hits the bloodstream quickly and causes a rise in your blood sugar.  This blood sugar spike signals a cascade of inflammatory chemicals to spread to the cells triggering a response in your body, including your joints. The joints become inflamed causing aching pain, throbbing and stiffness due to the buildup of inflammation.  One way to stop the inflammatory response is to cut sugar out of your life. 

What to do with your Nutrition to stop the Inflammation and pain in your body?

1. Cut out Sugar.  Start to read labels and look at the added sugar in your favorite products. The goal is to stay around 25 grams of sugar a day.  Track it and see what your total is, you will be surprised at the sneaky places sugar is hidden in our foods.
2. Eat your Veggies- Veggies are full of anti-inflammatory properties that can really help your body process the inflammation and eliminate it through your waste.  Eat the colors of the rainbow each day. 
3. Avoid inflammatory oils- Avoid refined hydrogenated oils such as canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, margarine, crisco and soybean oil. Read your food labels and eliminate foods that contain these oils.  
4. Get in your amino acids- eating good quality proteins can be very beneficial to your joint health.  Incorporating bone broth, grass fed beef, grass fed butter and wild caught fish can give your body the building blocks for repair.  It has to be good quality or it can do more harm than good. 

What can you do to improve pain naturally?

• Reducing stress- 
  • Busy Day-  take some deep breaths to calm your nerves and get back to a relaxed state ( it puts in your rested nervous system called your parasympathetic system back into action instead of your fight or flight sympathetic system which we are on when we are stressed).  In the car, on the toilet...whenever you are sitting you can practice deep breathing. 
  • Meditating, Journaling, a Bath
  • Nature Walks/Grounding- Getting some gentle movement in nature can be so peaceful.  And if walking hurts your joints, just sit barefoot with your feet in the grass.  It can calm your body and your nervous system.
• Drinking Water-  Dehydration causes muscle cramping and spasming.  If you are not getting enough water it can make your joints more stiff, less flexible and more likely to pull, tug and cause pain.  Water also helps with elimination of waste from the body which is inflammatory by nature so flushing your body can help reduce pain. 
• Anti-inflammatory herbs- You can add them to your diet or drink as a tea anyway you can get them is best. My favorites are curcumin, turmeric, green tea and ginger. 

• Making dietary changes- The pain and inflammation is your body's way of nudging you to understand that it does not like what you are currently doing.  Eliminating some of the trigger foods ( sugar and processed oils) and adding in nutrient rich foods ( veggies and amino acids) will make a huge difference in your pain and inflammation.  

 If you are finding these suggestions to be overwhelming and impossible to do, I am here to help. I will work with you 1:1 to get to the root cause of your pain and help you to get your life back.   

Set up a discovery call with me to get your questions answered and see if working together on your Nutrition and Lifestyle modifications will help give you relief and improve your health.