Today we have a very special guest here on the website to talk to us about a fundamental topic: spine health and how nutrition is crucial in this process. I'm a fan of this professional, who, besides being extremely competent, is friendly and very attentive. Fúlvia Gomes Hazarabedian is a nutritionist who has been working for 20 years in a holistic and integrated way for health, well-being, weight loss, performance, and longevity, at different stages of life, through nutrition and quality of life. Additionally, she specializes in exercise physiology, phytotherapy, functional nutrition, and maternal and child health. What a great nutritionist, right, folks! Let's chat with her.
Fúlvia, first of all, thank you very much for making space for this important topic and for being here with us. To start our conversation, in your view, what is the importance of the nutrition professional in people's daily lives?
I say that we are what we eat, what we digest, and what we absorb. Nutrition is not only essential but also part of our lives in aspects that go beyond just calories or macronutrients and micronutrients because we have social and exercise-related issues there. So, a professional who understands the demands, nutritional needs, routines, expectations, and objectives of patients through active listening and, of course, technical support, ends up being able to link what is technical and what is practical. This makes nutrition and eating viable. So, that's the importance of the professional in people's daily lives because it extends to various aspects, whether it's performance, weight loss, longevity, or a moment of pregnancy or dietary introduction.
Thinking now more specifically about spinal health, are there any special recommendations regarding nutrition?
For spinal health, we need to consider bone quality. So, in addition to ensuring access to nutrients, ensuring digestive health, and absorption, which involves thinking about the digestive tract, there are specific demands for bone formation such as calcium intake, associated with vitamin D and magnesium, combined with physical activity. Thus, from gestational formation to child development and monitoring growth, we need to consider that, throughout life, there are some wear and tear processes, such as sarcopenia, which affects us as we age, particularly in old age. However, we can fortify our bodies, so we need to associate these mentioned vitamins and minerals, as well as vitamin K2. It's about looking at how these nutrients are absorbed into the body through diet, and indeed, in some cases, there's a need for supplementation.
Does being overweight impact the spine in any way?
When we think about a dynamic issue like mobility, we end up dealing with joint-related issues. Due to the weight of the abdomen itself or because the abdomen becomes distended and the deeper muscles can no longer support this fat, both peripheral and visceral, we may lose some mobility. All of this can impact spinal health, which already requires a specific focus and strengthening at different stages of life. The weight itself, or rather, the shape that the body takes on with excess fat, being an inactive and heavy mass, impacts the angulation, wear, and strain on the vertebrae of the spine.
What are the most practical ways to maintain your ideal weight?
We have some important things, like paying attention to the volume of what we eat, the quality of our choices, the combinations we can make, meal fractionation, and there's that basic line: maintaining hydration, avoiding soda, alcoholic beverages, sweets, excessive white flour, and fried foods. This is if we're talking about common sense weight loss, but of course, each body functions differently and, as a result, both restrictions and portions and combinations will be developed individually.
About complex surgeries, such as scoliosis, how can a nutritionist assist in the process?
When it comes to the preoperative process, if the patient presents issues with overweight or obesity, we try to facilitate weight loss beforehand. If there's a need for supplementation, such as omega-3, or any other food that may cause vasodilation, we schedule a cessation of consumption before the surgery and after the procedure. Upon the patient's return, as the recovery involves limitations on certain movements, and the patient will be more sedentary during a period until they begin rehabilitation, we need to control the caloric intake, adjusting to this period where walking and natural movement are reduced. This may also impact intestinal flow, so it becomes important to have a diet rich in fiber or with lighter digestion. We also need to consider some stomach protectors because it's a postoperative period and there will be anti-inflammatory medication, which can impact the intestinal flora. This can affect fermentation flow or lead to diarrheal episodes, or indeed, the non-absorption of important nutrients the patient is consuming. So, there's indeed a possibility of preparing for preoperative and certain conditions for postoperative care as well.
Is there any vitamin deficiency that adversely affects spinal or bone health more broadly?
Here I think there's the fundamental issue of what we consume, what we digest and absorb, and the importance of those vitamins I mentioned, especially calcium, K2, magnesium, and vitamin D.
Health tips from Fúlvia: what are the main ones?
As a final message, the main tips I can give are that everything we do regarding our health, we reap later on, so we need to sow good habits, good choices, conscious choices, care, and discipline, to reap a healthy body in physiological functions, biochemical tests, physical aspects, and even aesthetics. These are things that indeed also affect our mental health, so we will reap what we sow. Our continuous choices provide sustainability for a more robust, strengthened health. Extras can happen at certain times in life if there is a pathology, or if there is a nutritional strategy that requires more specific care. We may have more intense diets, but if our daily life is careful, the extras will pass smoothly, and that is also part of it. Taking care of our body, and taking care of the house we inhabit here is something that is in our hands. I say that knowledge is a decision-making tool. So, the more we know about the functioning of our organism and the physical activities that provide improvements in our body and mind, the more choices we make in our daily lives that impact our physical and physiological issues must be backed by knowledge. Taking care of ourselves, as mentioned before, is in our hands and is something we can and should do daily.
