DIET AND METABOLIC HEALTH COACHING FOR NECK PAIN
Diet and metabolic health coaching is a short talk at every physiotherapy visit about what you eat, when you eat and how you sleep. Constant snacking, belly fat and high blood sugar keep your body inflamed, which turns up neck and nerve pain, so fixing them helps each of your other treatments work better.
How does the coaching work?
Think of it as a check-in between two people, not a scolding. Together we go over your meals since the last visit, what made it hard, and pick one or two things to change before you come back. When your physician has ordered the RQ breathing test, those numbers guide the plan.
Our article on an anti-inflammatory diet for neck pain explains the science behind it. This page is the protocol itself, the one you get in writing at your first visit.
Our eating protocol, one step at a time
Think of food as medicine and as instructions for your body. Eat when real hunger hits, not when boredom does. Your physician adjusts each step to fit you, and we go over where you are at every visit.
The habit that comes first: walk after you eat
After every meal, snack or drink, plain water included, go for a 10-minute walk.
Step 1: Cut out all vegetable oils
Vegetable oils are really industrial seed oils; no vegetable goes into them. Check every food label and skip anything that lists one. Throw out the cooking spray.
- Butter
- Real olive oil
- Beef tallow
- Ghee
- Coconut oil
- Duck fat
- Avocado
- Canola
- Corn
- Soybean
- Crisco
- Margarine
Step 2: Cut out sugar and sweeteners
Drop anything that tastes sweet: juice, soda, diet soda and candy, and chips go too. No artificial sweeteners. Allulose is probably fine.
Step 3: Protect your sleep
Try to sleep 7 hours or longer each night in one unbroken stretch. No TV, phone or computer in bed.
Step 4: Supplements, only with your physician
Your physician may add vitamin D3 together with K2, krill oil, or SIBO yogurt made at home, depending on what you need. Check with us before you start anything new.
Step 5: Pick your plan with your physician
Meant for beginners, who do not yet know which foods drive their inflammation, or who have weight to lose and have stalled.
- Two meals a day, no more.
- Beef, chicken or fish in any amount, with butter and spices.
- Your menu: meat, cheese, eggs, butter and salt.
- Water is the only drink.
- SIBO yogurt may help.
Keep this up for 4 to 12 weeks. Then bring back one food a week, provided it is allowed under the Live Health Protocol.
Our everyday eating plan for keeping pain and inflammation low. Seed oil and sugar raise pain and inflammation in step with how much of them you eat. Feeling drained or getting cramps can mean you need extra salt.
Real food to eat- Beef, pork, chicken and fish
- Eggs, yolk and all
- Leafy greens
- Almonds, macadamias and other tree nuts, plus seeds
- Unsweetened tea, coffee and water
- Potatoes, grits, oatmeal, cereal, bread, pasta, rice and rice cakes
- Packaged food with added flavors or colors
- Fruit
- Peanuts, cashews and other nuts that grow underground
- Coffee creamer, juice, soda and diet soda
Eat inside a time window
Do all your eating within less than 8 hours each day. Once it feels routine, trim one more hour off the window each week until only 4 to 5 hours remain. Of all the meals, breakfast is the one most likely to push you into eating too much later on.
Keep moving, every week
Your physician builds your walking and strength routine, with no less than 150 minutes of activity a week. Keeping your muscles strong protects them while your neck heals. If you smoke, we help you quit.
What should you tell us first?
- If you take insulin or other diabetes medicine, or blood pressure pills, changing how you eat can change how much medicine you need, sometimes fast. Your physician handles every medicine change.
How long does it take?
A part of every visit.
What to remember
- A 10-minute walk follows anything you eat or drink.
- Seed oils, sugar and sweeteners stay out.
- All eating fits inside a window under 8 hours.
Show us you have it: Each visit, give us a quick report: your meals, your walks after them, and your hours of sleep since we last saw you. At your next visit we go over it again, and we are glad to repeat any step you want to see twice.
This is one part of our physiotherapy program for neck pain. Every treatment here is ordered and overseen by a physician who has examined your neck, and none begins until a physician is on site and ready to step in at once.
Start with the written protocol at your first visit
Bring a list of your medicines, and if you can, a few days of what you have been eating.
12174 Natural Bridge Rd, Suite 302
St. Louis, MO 63044
Next to DePaul Hospital, just off the 270 and 70 junction, west of the airport.