Does your diet affect your pain levels?

In a study published in PubMed, researchers examined three groups of adults all between the ages of 65-75 diagnosed with knee pain.

The participants were asked to follow one of three diets for a period of 12 weeks while functional pain, self-reported pain, quality of life, and depression were assessed every three weeks using questionnaires.

Oxidative stress was analyzed in serum before and after the diet intervention using a TBARS assay. TBARS is thiobarbituric acid reactive substances, which is a measure of oxidative stress as a product of AGEs.

Osteoarthritis is the most prominent form of arthritis, affecting approximately 15% of the population in the United States. Knee osteoarthritis has become one of the leading causes of disability in older adults.

Besides knee replacement (which is still unclear as well), there has not been a very successful way of handling or reducing the pain or the damage done in osteoarthritis patients.

Drugs that do reduce pain are a concern due to side effects and the potential for addiction development.

The results showed that the low carbohydrate group had dramatically reduced pain scores, significantly increased quality of life scores and, decreased TBARS.

What we cover

• The study, the limitations of the study and the results.
• Interpretations of the results.
• Possible mechanisms explaining the results.
• The possible applications of this study into your daily life and what we believe you should change.