Pain is usually associated with lots of four-letter words. But just because pain can make you squirm, yelp, curse, or plead for mama to bring you a blanket doesn’t mean that all pain is made equal. As you know, there are all kinds of pain. There’s emotional pain (it’s why we call it heartbreak, after all), and there’s a whole spectrum of physical pain. Some of that physical pain is both specific and acute: when you twist an ankle, bang your elbow, or stub your toe on the bedpost during a 3 a.m. bathroom trip (four-letter words indeed!).
Then there’s chronic pain. This kind, which affects more than 25 million Americans every day and more than 100 million every year, is just always there. A bad back that aches, joints that throb, waking up every day with a headache, or even an overall feeling of malaise that just hurts.
The first kind of pain is simple enough to understand: You hurt something temporarily, eventually it stops (whether in a few seconds, as with a paper cut, or a few weeks, as with a sprained ankle), and you go on your way. The second kind of pain is much trickier, in that it’s not always easy to diagnose or ease. For example, backs and spines can be more complicated than an advanced physics exam, and pain associated with hormonal or autoimmune issues doesn’t just resolve itself with a couple ibuprofen. (Back x-rays, CT scans, and MRIs often reveal problems like disk protrusions, which have existed for years without causing pain but just as often mask other problems.)
The first thing to note is that in cases of complicated or chronic pain, it’s essential to have physical therapy (PT) to help get rid of the problem, and professional medical care if PT doesn’t get to the bottom of it. That has to be the foundation. That said, there are things you can eat to help with many chronic pain problems. Here’s why: Good foods are some of the Earth’s most effective natural pain fighters.
Important point here: Pain is NOT a bad thing, at least evolutionarily speaking. It’s our anatomical watchdog, alerting us that our bodies—and potentially our lives—are in some kind of trouble. In fact, the body part that hurts is not actually controlling the pain. Instead, your brain—via various pathways in your nerves—is sending signals that you need to get out of the situation. Makes sense, right?
Put your hand on a dish that comes right out of the oven, and your fingers hurt; that’s your brain telling you that, uh, maybe you ought to walk those little fingers of yours to the drawer and get some pot holders. Pain is your “stop” button: Stop doing what you’re doing so you can stay alive. That doesn’t mean pain is pleasant or we want it in our lives. But it does give you some perspective as to how it works and why it’s essential to our survival. No pain, and we—as a species—don’t make it very far.
Here’s how the pain-messaging system works: Let’s say you miss the last step on a set of stairs, trip, and fall. You slam your knees against the ground, and wow, that hurts like heck. If it doesn’t hurt immediately from the damage you may have done, then the long-term pain is triggered by your body’s immune system responding to a five-alarm fire call and rushing to the injured area. Your immune fighters come in to start healing the damaged cells and tissues. As those fighters arrive, it means more blood is flowing to the area, which becomes inflamed with immune cells trying to put out the fire. That inflammation is sending signals back to your brain via your nerves that something’s wrong, basically a signal saying that the smartest course of action isn’t to immediately get up and run (see Chapter 38 on inflammation).
When your knees heal in a few days or weeks, the inflammation will quiet down and you will sense less pain. So you can see that one way to help ease pain symptoms is to help quiet your body’s systemic inflammation. That’s not to say that eating pain-fighting foods will help your knees hurt less if you trip on the stairs. But if you suffer from chronic pain, systemic pain, or a low-grade pain that’s difficult to diagnose, you can help ease it by quieting your body’s inflammation.
That’s where food comes in. Anti-inflammatory foods aren’t going to work like medicinal pain relievers (have a headache, eat two pieces of dark chocolate!). But over the long term, they enable your body to more efficiently handle what hurts.
MVP: Research is showing that people who eat a traditional Mediterranean diet (low in saturated fat, rich in olive oil, fruits, vegetables, and nuts) seem to have fewer conditions related to pain and inflammation, such as joint problems.36 That makes a case for a steady dose of extra-virgin olive oil and walnuts; in fact, studies show that extra-virgin olive oil might have compounds similar to ibuprofen.37 Therefore, use olive oil for salad dressings and to cook with whenever you can. There’s a good chance that one of the reasons it’s so effective is because it’s a healthy fat, which makes the case that avocados, walnuts, and salmon (a fish full of omega-3 fatty acids) should also be a steady part of your diet (don’t get Dr. R started about how many salmon burgers he has in a week!).
Other Starters: Spicy food can also help with easing inflammation. For example, ginger has been found to have anti-inflammatory compounds that may help relieve pain.38,39,40,41 And turmeric (or curcumin) does, too;42 that’s the spice commonly used in Indian cooking and other Asian foods. Best of all, these two spices taste great used together in one dish.
Cut From the Team: You want a surefire way to hurt more? Keep on rocking the simple sugars and carbs. These are the foods that will actually spike inflammation as your body tries to deal with them.43,44,45 And here’s the tricky part: When you’re in pain, you reach for the quick fix—comfort foods that make you feel better in the moment. But though that simple sugar—whether from a cookie, chip, or cold piece of pizza—may feel good in the short term, it will hurt the rest of your body in the long run.
| SUB OUT… | SUB IN… |
| Diet soda | Coffee. Low doses of caffeine have been shown to help reduce the perception of pain.46 Chocolate also has caffeine and may help as well. (That doesn’t justify ordering the café mocha; instead, have your cup of coffee with a square or two of dark chocolate.) |
| Canned fruit with added sugar | Cherries or tart cherry juice are rich in phenolic compounds associated with decreased inflammation and pain.47 |