Bad Back Blog - Herniated Disc

This is a follow up to the previous herniated disc diet.

I wanted to add that a diet, or at least food moderation is really important when you have a herniated disc, because generally when you get a bulging disc your ability to exercise (even normal activities) are severely reduced.

In my case I can’t walk for more than about 5 minutes without pain, so guess what, I don’t walk a great deal. I’ll get a taxi if it’s more than 2 city blocks (taxi drivers hate me).

Also at home, the amount of activity I do is greatly reduced… house work, gardening etc etc it’s all put on the back burner (no pun intended).

So although I don’t recommend a diet per say I definitely recommend that you are aware of your eating habits. Make every meal a maximum size of your fist (you remember those old rules). Eat regularly, but don’t over eat, the moment you do your body starts packing it away and you don’t really have the ability to lose the weight. Also, as all herniated disc sufferers would know the more weight you carry the worse the condition, and also the chance of herniating another disc or make the one you’ve already got worse is greatly increased every single kilo/pound you gain. The reverse is also true, so actually losing weight (from when you herniated your disc) is amazing if you can achieve it…. to date I seem to have plateaued… it’s hard I know!

Also, if you’re thinking about surgery, you really want to reduce your weight because during the operation they actually pierce the annulus (outer casing of the disc), and any extra weight can push new disc material out again. (watch what they do during a back surgery)

So again, I don’t want to harp on this, but do everything you can to reduce your fat intake, and limit the size of the meals. The fatter you get with this condition the worse you are.. and I know how hard it is… you’re sitting around home, with a bad back, can’t work, can’t do much of anything, food starts looking like the perfect accompaniment to a good session of Oprah or Dr Phil

Please add your comment if you’ve got any TIPS for other readers.

Cheers
Matt

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 2:40 pm and is filed under More Herniated Discs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.