Can Your Diet Be Causing Back Pain? 5 Signs to Watch For
When you think of chiropractic care, diet probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Most patients expect us to talk about joints, muscles, and spinal alignment, not what they had for lunch. But for some people, the food they eat plays a significant role in their back or neck pain.
Over the years, we’ve seen many cases where a simple dietary shift made all the difference. If your pain has been lingering despite treatment, nutrition could be the missing piece. Here are five signs that your diet might be playing a bigger role than you think:
1. Tenderness in the Stomach Area
When we examine patients, we always check for abdominal tenderness. If pressing into the stomach causes pain or tension, it may be a sign of systemic inflammation, which is often linked to diet. That inflammation can spread to nearby muscles and joints, aggravating or even causing pain.
2. Inconsistent Reactions to Exercise or Treatment
Does your body react differently to the same exercise or hands-on treatment day-to-day? Some days it feels great, other days it flares up? This type of unpredictability can also indicate underlying inflammation; something that might be food-triggered.
3. Pain That Seems Random
When pain patterns don’t align with activity levels or posture, it could mean there’s an internal trigger. Inflammatory responses from certain foods can fluctuate, creating pain that feels random or unexplainable.
4. Morning Stiffness
Waking up stiff each morning could be more than a bad mattress. Inflammation often worsens overnight, leaving the body feeling rigid at the start of the day. While it can come from several causes, diet is one worth exploring.
5. Generalised Achiness or Discomfort
A chronic sense of tightness, stiffness, or low-grade pain throughout the body can suggest systemic inflammation. This often shows up when the foods we eat are triggering an immune response.
It’s worth noting that stress can also drive many of these symptoms. But if these five signs sound familiar, it might be time to consider whether your diet is quietly contributing to your discomfort.
In our next video, we’ll explore some specific approaches you can try to identify food triggers and feel more in control of your recovery.
