Benefit for Minster Degenerated Discs from Pumpkin Leaves
Every year around this time, pumpkins are all over the place! We enjoy them for décor, but they offer so much more! News of late focuses on the benefits of their leaves to slow disc degeneration and even possibly support regeneration. That is news to your Minster chiropractor’s ear…and surely to our Minster back pain and neck pain patients’ ears, too!
THE DISC – Healthy and Degenerated
Many back pain treatment approaches focus on relieving the pain and returning function without a thought about how to slow the degenerative process and/or promote regeneration. The intervertebral disc is made up of an inner core (nucleus pulposus) made of proteoglycans and a layered outer rim (annulus fibrosus) rich in collagen. Together, these two act as a shock absorber and stabilizer for the spine. Treatment choices for the degenerated disc come from understanding the processes that lead to degeneration so as to help relieve discogenic pain more effectively. (1) Your chiropractor reads about these mechanisms a lot!
PUMPKIN LEAVES AND CAROTENOIDS
It's recognized that pumpkin products and by-products (like leaves!) contain major carotenoids - β-carotene, α-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin – with β-carotene being the foremost one in most pumpkin types. The total content of carotenoids rests on a variety of factors, one being the extraction procedure. Functional foods are advanced from carotenoids which are said to add significantly to the numerous health benefits of the foods. (2) Nutrition can plan a role in disc health. Pumpkin and its by-products should not just be thrown away!
PUMPKIN LEAVES AND COLLAGEN AND PROTEINS AND DISC CELLS
A unique way to put pumpkins to work for us is well explained in a recent study regarding how the leaves of pumpkins may help. The acetone extract from Violina pumpkin (curcurbita moshata) leaves provoked a significant increase in extracellular matrix components like aggrecan and collagen type II in addition to other proteins and stress response regulators in the degenerated intervertebral disc cells removed from degenerated disc tissues of spinal surgery patients. Markers noting the presence and activity of stem cells were significantly increased, too. This news motivated the researchers to declare that the hypothesis about how adequate stimuli can support resident cells to repopulate the degenerated discs was thus reinforced. The report overall concluded that data point to the breakthrough that molecules may effectively slow disc degeneration using a part of the pumpkin that most of us get rid of as waste – the leaves! (3) Minster Chiropractic Center thinks you will look at the pumpkin leaves differently this season!
CONTACT Minster Chiropractic Center
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates how nutrition may slow and possibly avert degeneration and promote regeneration via ingredients like chondroitin sulfate based on years of research performed already and how nutrition combined with The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management reduce and control spine pain. We’ll keep watching the pumpkin leaves’ research as it evolves!
Schedule your Minster chiropractic appointment soon to visit us this pumpkin season!
