Chronic Pain and Inflammation
What is Chronic Pain?
Did you know that approximately 20% of Americans suffer from chronic pain? That is 1 in 5 people! So, what exactly is chronic pain? The umbrella term “chronic pain” refers to pain that is present for more than 8 weeks and can include pain from many different diseases and disorders.
“While acute pain is a normal sensation triggered in the nervous system to alert you to possible injury and the need to take care of yourself, chronic pain is different. Chronic pain persists. Pain signals keep firing in the nervous system for weeks, months, even years. There may have been an initial mishap — sprained back, serious infection, or there may be an ongoing cause of pain — arthritis, cancer, ear infection, but some people suffer chronic pain in the absence of any past injury or evidence of body damage.” (NIH Chronic Pain Information Page)
If you have experienced chronic pain for any length of time, you want a solution. There are options, but first we need to understand more about this kind of pain.
First, why does this pain keep going? A person continues to experience chronic pain due to many factors, but a key ingredient is often inflammation.
What is Inflammation?
Just like pain, there are two types of inflammation: acute and chronic. Dr. Deepak Bhatt of Harvard helps to explain these processes. Acute inflammation is our body’s natural response to an injury, such as a scape or a cut. White blood cells rush to the area and work to provide protection. That’s what the swelling is: white cells protecting the rest of the body. He points out that this process is very important. “In these settings, inflammation is essential—without it, injuries could fester and simple infections could be deadly.”
Chronic inflammation, however, often arises in response to foreign substances in the body. For example, consider plaque buildup in our arteries. Again, Dr. Bhatt helps to explain how this works: “Your body perceives this plaque as abnormal and foreign, so it attempts to wall off the plaque from the flowing blood. But if that wall breaks down, the plaque may rupture. The contents then mingle with blood, forming a clot that blocks blood flow.” The consequence of this process often results in a heart attack or stroke.
How Does Food Impact Inflammation?
Sometimes, our body struggles to keep our systems clear of inflammation. However, our diet choices often contribute to chronic inflammation. Fat cells, often termed adipose tissue, are pro-inflammatory, meaning they promote inflammation. Having increased amounts of adipose tissue not only causes problems related to inflammation and chronic pain, but also increases the risk for other chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular disease.
Antioxidants, a chemical compound found in the foods we eat, are another way that diet influences inflammation. Antioxidants are found in many fruits and vegetables and are often in the form of vitamins A, C and E and provide the anti-inflammatory properties that work to fight against oxidation. This is a process that occurs when a molecule loses an electron, therefore becoming unstable. The result is the production of free radicals, or unstable molecules that can damage our bodies, leading to many problems including inflammation and illness. Foods high in antioxidants, such as berries, tomatoes, olive oil, nuts, and green leafy vegetables use their antioxidant properties to work to neutralize the free radicals in our body, thus restoring order in the system and thereby reducing the inflammatory process in our body.
Why it Matters
Would you put oil in your gas tank? Choosing what to fuel our bodies with is just as important. Our overall health improves when we reduce inflammation levels through our diet and increased physical fitness. What we eat has the potential to affect how we feel, which affects how we perform. Pain, both chronic and acute, caused by inflammation, can also be effectively treated with exercise and physical therapy. Physical activity, whether through classic exercise such as pilates, cardio, or strength training, or through physical therapy exercises, burns calories, improves muscle tone and helps to manage weight. All these benefits can help to lower levels of adipose tissue, which as we saw earlier, is very pro-inflammatory.
What Can I Do?
Treating acute pain as it arises can help to reduce the chances of dealing with chronic pain later on. An added benefit is that these changes can also potentially lessen the need for pain medications. Through a combination of a healthy diet and exercise, we can work to reduce the incidence of inflammation and chronic pain. While we understand that lifestyle changes such as diet and exercise can positively affect our pain levels, making yourself a priority is the first step to feeling better.
Check out some additional options below:
1. Eat a healthy diet rich in fruits, vegetables and whole grains
2. Exercise regularly, including aerobic and strength training exercises
3. Physical therapy
5. Social support
Inflammation is not the only cause of chronic pain. Always consult your physician regarding your symptoms. It is also important to keep in mind that you are not alone in this journey! There are many people out there who specialize in the treatment of pain and can provide amazing support, such as physical therapists, personal trainers, registered dietitians and wellness coaches. Reaching out for additional support is often one of the best things you can do.
Remember: You Got This!
Making lifestyle changes through diet and exercise is a good option to help control levels of inflammation and reduce chronic pain. Change isn’t easy, but it may be helpful to know that we have the ability to influence how we feel through what we eat and how we exercise. In my next post, I will outline some eating patterns that have been shown to help reduce levels of inflammation and help to demystify the phrase, “Anti-Inflammatory Diet.”
If you have any questions about nutrition and how it relates to chronic pain, or are wanting to know more about why it’s important to your overall health, feel free to contact me through my website or visit CoreFit on Facebook!
Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash