Topic 4: Food and Pain

The foods you eat (and don’t) can determine how well your body fights painful inflammation.

Chronic pain is associated with elevated weight status, risk of multi-morbidity, suboptimal dietary patterns and diet quality. When pain becomes chronic, the life of the patients is dramatically affected, being associated with significant emotional distress and/or functional disability. A complex biopsychosocial evaluation is necessary to better understand chronic pain, where good results can be obtained through interconnected biological, psychological, and social factors. In this episode, you will learn that what you eat and how much you drink can influence your experience of pain. Some foods are good for pain and some foods are not so good. This presentation will guide you through dietary changes designed to help reduce your pain levels. We will also show you how to take a planned approach to healthy eating.

Optimising dietary intake effects chronic pain:

Dietary intake can enhance the function of the nervous, immune and endocrine systems, directly impacting pain experiences.
Losing or maintaining weight reduces the load on joints, and reduces meta-inflammation.
Dietary intake and weight status impacts on the risk and/or severity of other chronic diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease, diabetes and poor mental health, including anxiety and depression), often occurring concurrently with chronic pain.

Credits: Joyce McSwan – PainWISE Pty Ltd.