How Diet May Effect Chronic or Persistent Pain

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I wanted to follow up on Dr. Rothschild's excellent and very popular post A “Gut” Feeling: How what you eat may affect your perception of pain.

When you end up with a diagnosis of Fibromyalgia on your schedule for initial evaluation, depending on how your day is going you may think:

I'm up for the challenge, let's get this person functioning again
I am not ready for this

I want to thank Dr. Michael Greger of nutritionfacts.org who puts together a great site at nutritionfacts.org with literature review videos and blog posts. Below is one of my favorite videos showing the effects of various WFPB diets on the perceived pain/stiffness and quality of life of individuals with both fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis. Fibromyalgia vs Vegetarian and Raw Vegan Diets

StartFragmentThe thing I liked about some of the studies reviewed in the video is how the groups who had improvement in pain/stiffness/quality of life returned to their normal diet after weeks or months, and their symptoms also returned.

Check this out: http://www.pain-ed.com/blog/2015/08/13/the-role-of-a-healthy-lifestyle-in-chronic-pain/

Does this mean that meat or poor diet causes chronic pain? No, but it fits in with what other researchers have found regarding persistent pain patients, they may overall have an unhealthy ecosystem with many comorbidities. Just like Vitamin B or D deficiency, often studied in isolation for various effects like neuropathic pain, balance, strength, etc... If you are nutrient deficient in your diet, it's not just vitamins B or D, and the effects are widespread, not just for pain, but overall health.

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