What You Eat Is Your Foundation: Nutrition Tips for Aging Patients
If you've been coming to Johnson Chiropractic for back pain or neck pain care, you already know that chiropractic care is rooted in the idea that your body functions as one connected system — and what supports that system goes beyond adjustments alone. Yet one of the most powerful tools for supporting your long-term health is one that rarely comes up in the treatment room — what you eat every day. What you eat has a profound effect on how your spine, muscles, bones, joints, and nerves function every single day and help you get around Richmond.
AGING AND NUTRITION
With each passing decade, our bodies quietly shift in ways that make good nutrition both harder to achieve and more critical to our overall health. Research published highlights that older adults face unique physiological challenges when it comes to micronutrient absorption and utilization. Decreased stomach acid production, changes in gut motility, and reduced kidney function can all worsen how efficiently the body processes vitamins and minerals — even when dietary intake seems adequate. (1)
NUTRITION AND BACK PAIN
For anyone dealing with back pain, these nutritional gaps can make a big and often underestimated difference. Vitamin D and calcium are critical for bone density, and deficiencies are directly associated with increased fracture risk and osteoporosis-related spinal compression. Magnesium plays a main role in muscle relaxation and nerve transmission, and low levels can contribute to muscle cramps and tension that make back pain worse. B vitamins support nerve health, and antioxidants like vitamins C and E help reduce the chronic inflammation that drives many musculoskeletal conditions.
Importantly, the midlife years are a great time to take action — not after symptoms worsen. A study by Yu and colleagues (2) found that educational interventions aimed at midlife women significantly improved both knowledge and self-efficacy around healthy ageing, including the preservation of what researchers call "intrinsic capacity" — the physical and mental reserves that keep us functional and independent as we age. Nutrition is a basis of that capacity.
Unlike many aspects of ageing, your nutritional status is something you can actively improve — and even modest changes to your daily diet can have a meaningful impact on how your body responds to care and heals between visits. We at Johnson Chiropractic encourage every patient to consider nutrition as an extension of their chiropractic care. Your spine is only as strong as the body accompanying it.
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Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he talks about a common spinal condition, disc degeneration, that tags along with aging and how The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management helps.
