The Best Diet For Pain Relief

As doctor Mark Hyman says, “Food is medicine. You can not find anything in a bottle that is more powerful than what you put on your fork”. The best diet for pain relief depends on the individual but ultimately comes down to reducing inflammation and restoring the healthy bacteria in the gut.

Methylation Diet

Methylation is a natural process in the body that controls the replication of DNA. In turn, methylation is responsible for the aging of each cell and has been thought to play a role in the onset of, or a lack of, chronic disease.  Methylation is also responsible to control the unhealthy compound that can damage blood vessels called homocysteine, recycles molecules for optimal detoxification and keeps inflammation under control. The methylation diet focuses around adding foods into the diet that enhance the role in DNA methylation. The process behind methylation is to remove the obstacles the body faces that drain the natural methylation process while providing the body with a wide variety of nutrients for optimal balanced activity. This results in a gut that is not as irritated, leading to less gut inflammation and ultimately will reduce inflammation in the overall body, leading to less pain.

An example of breakfast following the methylation diet provided by Lara Zakaria found in the book “Everyday MDL” is Cranberry-Apple- Cinnamon Oatmeal. This meal consists of steel-cut oats, coconut oil, fresh cranberries, a crisp apple, and honey for topping!

Avoiding Nightshades

What is a nightshade?  A nightshade is a vegetable that contains Alkaloids, which are substances containing nitrogen. These nightshades are thought to increase inflammation in the gut and lead to other autoimmune diseases. Many nightshades are a rich source of nutrients and do not cause people issues. However, to reduce overall pain in the body,  avoiding these foods reduces inflammation and offers health benefits.

Examples of common nightshades to avoid include Eggplant, Peppers, Potatoes, and Tomatoes.

Gluten-Free

Joint pain and inflammation are two common symptoms when it comes to celiac disease. Celiac disease is when an individual has an autoimmune response to gluten. Gluten is the protein commonly found in wheat. For those with celiac disease, gluten does not get properly digested, causing damage to the small intestine and the inability to absorb the nutrients.

This leads to painful stomach aches, diarrhea, and inflammation of the intestines and tissues. This causes problems inside the gut, and outside the gut. By reducing gluten in the diet, patients see a reduction of depression, joint pain, headaches, and skin rashes. With the reduction of these symptoms, comes the reduction of pain. The less inflammation being caused from the inside of the body, the less pain felt by the patient.

Phytonutrient Diet

Phytonutrients come from plants. The word “Phyto” refers to the plant, in Greek. Phytonutrients are not essential to live, but they have been shown to help prevent disease and reduce inflammation by providing the body with natural compounds that are produced by plants.

Phytonutrients offer the body antioxidants, carotenoids to support immune health, flavonoids to aid in healthy cell communication that lead to detoxification, and glucosinolates to help eliminate toxins.

On top of all these diets, one of the best things to aid in pain relief is to add all-natural simple supplements into your daily lifestyle. Fish oils will help the body’s cardiovascular system as well as support healthy mental function as well as glucose and insulin metabolism.

Pre/Probiotics will feed the healthy bacteria along with providing a natural immune response, bowel regularity, and lactose digestion.

Vitamin D is a vitamin that almost everyone is deficient in. By adding this supplement to your diet it will support bone health and cardiovascular health.

Curcumin is derived from Tumeric. This is an all-natural supplement that provides antioxidant and cell activity, supports the joints and helps to relieve minor pain, provides the health of organs and their systems while promoting healthy cell growth.

Eating healthy and providing your body with a diet to allow it to work optimally, does not have to be repetitive, plain or boring. These foods and diets allow individuals to enjoy their life and their foods while ultimately reducing inflammation and experiencing pain relief. -Kenna Vaughn, Senior Health Coach

*The scope of our information is limited to chiropractic, musculoskeletal, and nervous health issues or functional medicine articles, topics, and discussions. We use functional health protocols to treat injuries or disorders of the musculoskeletal system. Our office has made a reasonable attempt to provide supportive citations and has identified the relevant research study or studies supporting our posts. We also make copies of supporting research studies available to the board and or the public upon request. 

References:

Hodges, Romilly. “Breakfast.” Everyday MDL Recipes for the Methylation Diet & Lifestyle Program for Optimal Genetic Expression, edited by Kara Fitzgerald , p. 35.

Olsen, Natalie. “Phytonutrients.” Healthline, 2018, www.healthline.com/health/phytonutrients.

Pearson, Keith. “Are Nightshades Bad for You? .” Healthline, 23 June 2017, www.healthline.com/nutrition/nightshade-vegetables.

Rath, Linda. “The Connection Between Gluten And Arthritis.” Www.arthritis.org, 2015, www.arthritis.org/living-with-arthritis/arthritis-diet/anti-inflammatory/gluten-free-diet.php.

“What Are Phytonutrients? Types and Food Sources.” WebMD, WebMD, 29 Oct. 2018, www.webmd.com/diet/guide/phytonutrients-faq#1.