Adopting a healthy diet has been found to reduce chronic pain, regardless of the person’s body weight.
New research from the University of South Australia found that diet changes presented an easy and accessible way for sufferers of chronic pain to better manage their condition.
UniSA PhD researcher Sue Ward said the study pointed to the broader benefits of healthy eating.
“It’s common knowledge that eating well is good for your health and wellbeing. But knowing that simple changes to your diet could offset chronic pain, could be life changing,” Ms Ward said.
“In our study, higher consumption of core foods, which are your vegetables, fruits, grains, lean meats, dairy and alternatives, was related to less pain, and this was regardless of body weight.”
Globally, about 30 percent of the population suffers from chronic pain. In Australia, almost one in five (or 1.6 million) people struggle with chronic pain.
Women have higher rates of chronic pain, as do people who are overweight or obese.
The findings suggested that diet quality affected pain differently in men and women.
“Women with better diets, had lower pain levels and better physical function. But this effect was much weaker for men,” Ms Ward said.
“It’s possible that the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties of the healthier core food groups is what reduces pain, but we can’t yet determine whether poorer diet quality leads to more pain, or if pain leads to eating a poorer quality diet.”
