Side effects of eating nuts. Abdominal pain. Abdominal bloating. Unexplained pain. Pain of unknown origin. Food that may cause muscular aches and pain. Referred pain from organs. Ileo-cecal valve irritation. Pain in right side of abdomen. Elbow pain. Shoulder pain. Foot pain. Mid back pain. Lower back pain.
We are often told to eat nuts as they contain many nutrients that are good for our health. However there is another side to nuts that may surprise you. They can, in fact, be the cause of many ailments especially physical aches and pains of unknown origin.
While nuts have some very good ingredients in them, the difficulty some people have in digesting them can sometimes cause seemingly unrelated musculo-skeletal pain via a process called referred pain.
The ileocecal valve
The ileo-cecal valve is a tight band of muscle located at the junction of the small and large intestines, in the lower right hand corner of your abdomen. It is a one way valve, allowing food to go from the small intestine to the large intestine but not the other way around.
Irritated ileo-cecal valve
Some food, in particular nuts, reach the ileo-cecal valve in a partially digested form and have difficulty passing through the valve. This causes a sort of traffic jam of undigested food and may result in irritation or inflammation of the valve. Physically this may make you feel bloated, often constipated, and generally uncomfortable in your tummy.
Referred pain from the ileo-cecal valve
(see diagram below)
One part of the body being unwell can affect another part of the body. This is called referred pain. An irritated ileo-cecal valve can cause pain in the lower back, neck, shoulders and elbows, head and even the feet.
What can you do to fix this?
- Avoid eating nuts. Eat seeds instead (sunflower, sesame) which also contain many beneficial vitamins.
- Gentle Chiropractic or Osteopathic care to help relieve the back or neck ache.
- Apply Simply Flower Power Pain Relief & Moisturising Cream to the areas of pain.
- The most important step to take is to stop eating nuts. The other two steps will only give you temporary pain relief if you keep recreating the cause of your pain.
- The pain will keep coming back if you don’t change your eating habits.
© Jessica Read 2011