How Safcol Seafood may help reduce lower back pain

Posted on :  October 20, 2020
How Safcol Seafood may help reduce lower back pain

by Ashleigh Feltham
Accredited Practising Dietitian and Accredited Nutritionist

Do you suffer from lower back pain?  Seafood may help reduce lower back pain. Worldwide this is the number one factor leading to disability. The treatment and prevention are largely sought from exercises and rest but you what you may not have considered is the role vitamin D can play in preventing your lower back pain. Almost 1 in 4 Australians are deficient in vitamin D so this is a relevant topic for many people who suffer from back pain.

Vitamin D is a fat-soluble vitamin with abilities to regulate the signalling source of your body called neurons as well as to promote anti-inflammatory effects in your body. It also plays an essential role in assisting calcium absorption for body and specifically bones.

A strong form of study known as a systematic review and meta-analysis found that those subjects who were vitamin D deficient were more likely to suffer from lower back pain. This finding was not only seen in the older population but those subjects younger than 60 years old and particularly in women.

Most people think of the sun to get vitamin D and it is a major and important source. It is also important to know that certain foods also are an important source of vitamin D. Foods like Safcol Seafood, dairy, eggs with the yolk and fortified foods are all good sources of vitamin D. When ranking foods based on the amount of vitamin D, they provide your body per 100g salmon is number one and trout is number 2. Good news for you is both fish varieties can be found in Safcol Seafood’s quality range. For lovers of tuna, this fish is also in the top group of sources of vitamin D per 100g serving.

Before reaching for a supplement over food sources, research has found that animal sources of vitamin D are much more effective than supplements can be. Animal sources of vitamin D contain both types of vitamin D known as D3 as well as the form 25(OH)D. Studies have shown that these animal sources of vitamin D provide your body with 2 to 18 times more vitamin D than a single source of vitamin D found in supplements.

 

Take home message

Instead of taking another pill to manage your lower back pain opt for food first. It will benefit your body in more ways than one.

Not only is Safcol the Seafood Experts tuna lunchbox friendly, but it also tastes delicious, and boasts some amazing health benefits! Tuna contains Omega-3 fats that are an unsaturated form of fat called polyunsaturated. These types of fats cannot be made by the body, so we need to include them as part of our diet to stay healthy. For good health, you need omega-3 fats in our diet, particularly the type which comes from fish and seafood because it contains two acids known as docosahexaenoic acid or DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA. These two acids are linked to better health for your body particularly for your brain and heart.

References:

  1. Zadro J, Shirley D, Ferreira M, Carvalho-Silva AP, Lamb SE, Cooper C, Ferreira PH. Mapping the association between Vitamin D and Low Back Pain: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Observational Studies. Pain Physician. 2017 Nov;20(7):611-640. PMID: 29149142.
  2. Roseland JM, Phillips KM, Patterson KY, Pehrsson PR, Taylor CL. Vitamin D in foods: An evolution of knowledge. Pages 41-78 in Feldman D, Pike JW, Bouillon R, Giovannucci E, Goltzman D, Hewison M, eds. Vitamin D, Volume 2: Health, Disease and Therapeutics, Fourth Edition. Elsevier, 2018.