Food for Slip Disc Patient

Which food for slip disc patient works better?

Eat bringle, oats, curd and blah blah…. you can find many articles like this on internet. But these diets are like “quick-fixes” which doesn’t last for long. We need to discuss all aspects of the diet. Here Vaidya Pardeep Sharma is talking about the food for slip disc patient in detail…

This is a basic question every patient wants to know. And when it comes to Ayurveda, food becomes far more important. Because for Ayurveda this is not alone your lifestyle or way of couching alone. But also your food too, which decides your spinal health.

You can get rid of the spinal surgery if you follow the guidelines for food for slip disc treatment.

Once you’re not taking the right food, no medicines will work and when you are taking right food lesser medicines you need less medicines.

An Ayurveda proverb about diet

Whether it is a bulging disc, herniated disc or extruded disc. Your diet will destine the future of your disc.

Before we will list the good and bad diet, we need to better understand the concept of Ayurveda about diet in spinal disc problems.

How Does Diet Impact your Disc

Diet impacts us- physiologically as well as psychologically. Ayurveda elaborates it in a different way.

What you eat, will impact on your body in same way. This happens because of the characteristics of food.

When you add water into water- water will increase. If you add some other liquid or syrup in the water- liquid might increase but not the water exactly. But if we put some sand in water, water will decrease.

Is this confusing??

Not really, this is not just the liquidity of water. Water has some character and this character gives an identity to the water. The same is known as Guna.

This works in same way for the whole human body. You intake calcium and this calcium supports the structures where it is needed. This is the same concept. Ayurveda believes in concept of quality over quantity.

Quality of calcium is always different from iron or other elements. Ayurveda picks same concept of quality. And we call it “Guna” concept of Ayurveda. We will discuss it in detail before that we need to know what nutrition spinal disc need and what problems appear in term of nutritional supply to the disc.

What nutrition your disc need

Spinal disc is an onion like structure- layered. And in the centre, there is thick jelly.

The outer layers (annular fibres) hold the Jelly (nucleus pulposus) with in and this makes a structure to absorb the shock. So we need to nourish more to inner part. Which helps in maintaining the structure of the spinal disc.

This central jelly like structure- nucleus pulposus. It is watery. It has immune related inputs. Collagen proteins are there.

This part gets the nutrition through the endplates (cartilages on bones). This nutrition is through a process of imbibition. Something like soaking the nutrition from surroundings.

So the main thing what a disc needs is- water, proteins, some immune related nutrition.

When we say water. It is not water which we know as H2O. This is more viscous than water, oily, spongy. So we need food of the same qualities in case of patients of spinal disc.

But there are two types of problems for a spinal disc. Let’s know this, after that we will switch to the food in detail.

Nutritional Problems with disc

When we are discussing about the food for the spinal disc disease, we need to understand that there are two concepts on a larger level.

1. Unavailability of nutrition for the disc.
2. The right nutrition.

Unavailability of nutrition for the disc: Nutrients are available in the blood. But carrier or passage is not proper. When disc doesn’t get the proper nutrition because- damage of the endplates, hinderance in blood supply etc.- this happens in case of spondylitis, facetal arthropathy and degenerative disc disease. There might be some mechanical causes behind the problem like – loss of lordosis, spondylolisthesis.

The right nutrition: When blood supply is proper but you don’t have proper quality of nutrition. Then it will cause the problem more quickly.

Generally it is asked why degenerative changes in disc in early ages- the second problem is more common. We are eating on the basis of quantity. 100 gms of protein (just an example) daily is good for body. But nobody knows that body is going to absorb this quantity or not?

Role of Diet in spinal disc problem

As discussed above- Ayurveda believes in the theory of Gunas.

Gunas are characters. These are 10 pairs of Guna. In every pair, there are opposites. Likewise-

Cold-Hot, Dry-Oily, Heavy-Light etc.

These all are always specific. Specific according to different tissue levels and also according to the foods.

In this situation, the main concept is- the Guna will increase which you will consume in food.

Now we know disc is watery, smooth, oily. This is not viscous. It can rebound. This is the reason we need to eat things with same quality. Don’t worry no need to eat one type of food all the day.

So to select the food for a slip disc patient we need to understand what your disc needs in terms of Gunas. Then it will be easy to streamline what food you should take to avoid the complicated spinal surgery.

How to manage the nutrition to the disc?

When this blockage of the nutrition is because of the mechanical cause- we need to readjust supply and alignment of the spine.

Incase of second cause, we need to provide the nutrition to the disc internally. Panchakarma treatment work well in this. But here our focus is more on the diet, so we will discuss about the diet alone.

Choosing Right Food for Spinal Disc problem

Now comes the main focus part for the planning of food in cases of slipped disc and certain other problems of the spine.

Foundation of Ayurveda is Doshas. Everything happens because of the Doshas. Similarly all activities of treatment always target the Doshas only.

In managing the diet, as per Ayurveda the first and foremost thing is- bringing your Vata Dosha in balance. Because as per Ayurveda, all neurological and musculo-skeletal diseases are related to the Vata Dosha. Therefore foods which aggravates Vata should be avoided completely.

Similar qualities adds upon and opposite qualities subtracts.

So now we need to know about the qualities of Vata Dosha.

Characteristics or qualities of the Vata Dosha are –

1. Ruksha (Dryness)
2. Chala (Movement)
3. Laghu (Light)
4. Suksham (Subtle)
5. Khara (Rough)
6. Vishada (Clear)

How these characters of vata when increased can cause problems of the spine. Have a brief look-

How Does Vata Gunas impact on Spine and Spinal Disc?

• Movement: Anything which moves inside the body is controlled by Vata. These are motor and sensory movements of “knowledge” which comes under this concept. So whatever increases the “frequency” of these movements will cause more pain and more complications in case of the disease.
• Dryness : If dryness will increase in the body, the main problem will be stiffness. Stiffness is the first cause behind the spinal problems. The same stiffness when appears in the disc causes dehydration of the disc. This dehydration brings degenerative changes and rest we know that how does a disc bulge.
• Lightness: The more lighter you are, lesser fats you have. Fat insulates the impulses. This might be as myeline sheath or even the white matter of the spinal cord. Fat calms the neural system and helps in making things normal.
• Subtle: Anything which is subtle in guna will bring dryness. Gross things covers and layers the things. But subtle enters deep insides and brings dryness.
• Roughness: This is fat which smoothens the things and once there is not fat, things will be complicated. Likewise in myelomalacia and myelopathy changes same roughness appears in neural tissue and leads to severe problems.

So in nutshell we need to balance these Gunas. So that things will remain under control.

How to Design a healthy diet for slipped disc?

As an Ayurveda practitioner I need to check all these Gunas of foods. This is something I always look for and find the opposite gunas.

My three rules of diet are-

1. Traditional Diet
2. Regional Diet
3. Seasonal Diet

These three commandments arr

Three tastes which help in balancing Vata Dosha are- sweet, sour and salt. So consumption of these three will help you to get rid of the pain and problem.

In last 15 years I have worked hard and found the following combinations and foods.

Let’s discuss all types of foods one by one according to category. Grains and vegetables are most important in this case.

Grains in slipped disc

Here is the list of grains which are favourable and avoidable in case of slipped disc. In all these lists the meaning of favourable and avoidable is to use the minimum of the avoidable foods.

Vegetables in Slipped disc

These vegetables listed as avoidable vegetables increases the dryness in the body. Therefore stiffness comes in body and further complications appear.

Legumes (Daal) for Slipped Disc Patient

The best daal / legume for a patient is – Urad Daal- Black gram! It sounds strange to many of patients and you will also find funny. But it is so.

Moong and Masoor are lightest legumes and these are easy to digest. No doubt. And these two are favourite for almost all diseases. But not in case of spinal disc problems. As these two daals are dry and light and cause complications for the condition for slipped disc patients.

General dietary guidelines for slip disc patients

When it comes to the food for slip disc patient we need to follow these points properly.

• Once you have slip disc don’t consume alcohol
  • Alcohol is dry in nature and it increases intensity of degeneration in the body. Therefore consumption of alcohol will increase the decay of the disc.
• Don’t consume cold water or cold drinks
  • Cold complicates the blood supply to the smaller arteries of the body and in Ayurvedic terms it will complicate the Vata aggravation.
• Salads are never good for slipped disc patients.
  • Salads are dry in nature and these increase the dryness in human body, therefore these should be avoided completely in case of slip disc.
  • This is not only about some certain things you eat as salad, but all types of uncooked foods are not allowed for the patients of slipped disc.
• When it comes for food for slip disc patients, you should avoid using sprouts. Sprouts boost energy immediately. But these are never good in condition of the slip disc, because these contain a lot of natural amounts of anabolic steroids.
• Don’t go for dieting. This is a misconception that loosing weight helps in slip disc. But this is not true. Dieting will increase dryness and the same dryness will complicate the problem of slip disc.

FAQs Food for Slip Disc Patient

There are many misconceptions about diet for slip disc condition. People keep on posting these questions and keep on asking these question to me several times. I am answering all the queries here one by one. If I had missed something, you can ask on facebook, youtube or you can email me directly.

Education is pillar for any disease. Therefore I and my team – we are trying our best to educate you.

This is all about food for slip disc patient!! Now you can manage your diet wisely.

Still if you have some queries, you can consult with me on the link. Don’t forget to share the MRI reports with us. So that I can guide you better for the treatment of your condition.