But...
One day I woke up with NO pain and I thought, "What, am I dreaming? Did I die and go to heaven?"
I racked my brain trying to remember what I did differently the day before. I couldn't think of anything. Then I realized I smelled like garlic.
I remembered I had made Brussels sprouts with 10 cloves of garlic the night before. I wondered if garlic was an Anti-Inflammatory. I googled "anti-inflammatory garlic". The first reference on google was, "How to treat your back pain with garlic". Then, I googled Brussels sprouts - also anti-inflammatory. So I had done a double whammy without knowing it. I ate the same thing again that night, just to be sure. The next day, no pain again!
So I got a list of all the anti-inflammatory foods and also inflammatory foods and started experimenting. Dairy, processed foods- really bad. So I ate a family sized frozen enchilada dinner that served 4 to see what would happen. The next day, not only was my back hurting, it was making clunking, popping, and grinding noises. I asked my step father who is an osteopath how it was possible to go from having no pain and no grinding noises, to a lot of pain with grinding noises, overnight. He said, "When your back gets inflamed your muscles tense up and pull the bones closer together, causing them to grind."
That night I switched back to anti-inflammatory - artichoke with mustard (tumeric in the mustard is anti-inflammatory) mixed with vegenaise (vegan mayonaise)...next morning, NOTHING. No pain at all. I was a spring chicken, and I went down to the beach and did some backflips off a slackline.
I also bought a kneeling chair, a kyrobak, and a teeter hang up machine, which are all very helpful. But really, for me, the diet made the biggest difference.
So if you suffer from inflammation, try an anti-inflammatory diet, see what happens.
See the two food picture lists below.
The 2nd food pic below also includes inflammatory foods you may want to avoid.
Also, 1 or 2 daily baby aspirin (81 mg) will help reduce overall inflammation.
The ancient Egyptians developed a form of aspirin 5000 years before the advent of modern medicine.
Modern aspirin comes from Willow Bark...The Egyptians made Willow Bark tea.
But be careful, taking more than 1 or 2 daily baby aspirin (81 mg) may lead to gastrointestinal problems. And be careful taking them if you also take chondroitin for your joints. You can get them safety coated to protect your stomac. See last pic below.
Good Luck :)
~Dhruva Aliman
