Dr. Stefano Sinicropi, M.D.

Posture improvement is the most common advice given to patients hoping to prevent and treat neck pain, but it’s not the only controllable factor worth considering if you want to decrease your risk of neck and spine pain. One oft-overlooked aspect of neck health is our nutritional choices, and a recent study decided to take a closer look at the impact healthy eating has on our necks. Below, we explore how you can lower your risk of new or chronic neck pain by reaching for more fruits and vegetables throughout the day.

Plant-Based Eating And Neck Health

To hone in on the impact healthy eating had on a person’ s neck, researchers pulled the health data of nearly 100,000 people in the UK Biobank, which is one of the largest health databases in the world. They measured participants’ diet quality through a measure called Planetary Health Diet (PHD), which uses a scoring system to rate how closely someone’s eating habits align with a plant-forward eating pattern centered on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and nuts, while also limiting intake of red meat, added sugar and saturated fat.

After looking at the data, researchers found that 22.5% of participants reported chronic neck or back pain (pain that had lasted at least three months and was impacting daily living activities). When looking at adults over 60 years old, researchers learned that patients who most closely followed the PHD had 7% lower odds of chronic pain compared to those who followed it the least.

Additionally:

• The effect was most pronounced in women under 60.
• The relationship wasn’t all or nothing. The more closely someone followed the diet, the lower their odds of pain tended to be.

Researchers weren’t able to specify exactly why this association was found, but they had some theories as to why a plant-forward diet could give your neck a better chance at remaining healthy. For starters, plant-rich diets are rich in antioxidants and fiber, both of which have been shown to help keep inflammation under control. Chronic neck and back pain oftentimes involves unresolved inflammation or inflammatory flareups. Moreover, PHD focuses on consuming nutrient-dense foods, which make it easier for your body to get the vitamins and minerals it needs to perform essential functions that aid in neck health, like repairing damaged bones or facilitating ideal nerve function. Compared to nutrient-lacking diets or those rich in pro-inflammatory foods like refined sugar and carbohydrates, it’s no wonder that plant-forward diets provide a more ideal environment for the neck and your spine as a whole to thrive.

Now, we’re not saying that you need to completely rethink your dietary choices if you’re hoping to ward off chronic neck pain or keep it from developing in the first place, but consider making some small but sustainable tweaks to your diet. Reach for a few more plant-based foods like fruits, vegetables and nuts and fewer processed options like potato chips or cookies, and your neck will be better off as a result. Gradually tweaking your dietary choices make it more likely that these changes will become long-term habits, so start small and keep making smart dietary choices, and soon you won’t have to think about making the right food choices for your neck health.

And as always, if you want a professional to take a closer look at your neck and provide you with a diagnosis or an individual treatment plan, connect with Dr. Sinicropi and the team at Midwest Spine & Brain Institute. Give our team a call today at (651) 430-3800.

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