Despite the fact that almost 1,500 million people around the world suffer from pain on a regular basis - a figure that increases every year -, to date it is not well known how to prevent this health problem.
It is known that physical exercise can play an important role in the prevention of pain, while some popular interventions (such as using ergonomic furniture, lumbar belts or shoe inserts), often lack a scientific basis. Instead, there is increasing evidence that some foods, nutrients, and bioactive compounds can regulate inflammation in our bodies.
A recent study, published in The Journals of Gerontology: Series A , led by researchers from the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), CIBERESP and the IMDEA-Alimentación institute, has now confirmed that a diet with less inflammatory potential is associated with less incidence of pain among those over 60 years of age.
Given that inflammation is related to pain, the authors of the study comment that "it made sense to see if following a diet with less inflammatory potential was associated with less pain."
To test this hypothesis, the researchers used data from the ENRICA-Seniors-1 cohort, made up of 819 people over the age of 60 from all over Spain, to see if adopting a more anti-inflammatory diet for three years was associated with a lower incidence of chronic pain. over the next three years.
According to the authors, “this way of analyzing the data was not accidental, since it made it possible to study whether adopting better habits in old age had an impact on pain, that is, checking whether it is never too late to change”.
But how do you measure the inflammatory potential of a diet? There are several models of anti-inflammatory diet, but almost all agree that it is rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals and omega-3 fats, and low in saturated and trans fats.
Regarding food, it seems clear that tea, coffee, greens and vegetables (especially garlic and onion) have anti-inflammatory activity, unlike carbonated drinks, red and processed meat, or refined grains.
Analyzing the data, the researchers found that adopting a less inflammatory diet over three years was associated with a 37% lower risk of having moderate pain, and up to a 45% lower risk of having high pain in the following three years .
"It was striking that the association was stronger with disabling pain, which is the one that has the most clinical importance, because it makes it difficult or prevents carrying out daily activities," the researchers point out.
“Interestingly,” they add, “the benefits of the anti-inflammatory diet on pain were only seen among people who did less physical activity. Apparently, both eating a healthy diet and regular physical activity reduce inflammation in the body. This means that sedentary people should probably take more care of their diet to avoid the onset of pain, while more athletic people could be less strict”.
With the necessary caution, since it is a study only in older people, the researchers consider that these new data support the use of diet as a tool for the prevention of pain, a field (that of preventive measures) in which, they recall , “there is little evidence, despite the fact that, in the United States alone, back pain costs society between 365,000 and 560,000 million dollars a year, due to the use of the health system, disability and lost productivity associated employment”.
_____________________
Bibliographic reference:
Carballo-Casla, A., García-Esquinas, E., Lopez-Garcia, E., Donat-Vargas, C., Banegas, JR, Rodríguez-Artalejo, F., Ortolá, R. 2022. The inflammatory potential of diet and pain incidence: a cohort study in older adults . The Journals of Gerontology: Series A , glac103, DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glac103.
The research team observed changes in head circumf...
AtCDF3 gene induced greater production of sugars a...
Un estudio con datos de los últimos 35 años, ind...
En nuestro post hablamos sobre este interesante tipo de célula del...
Investigadores del Cima Universidad de Navarra constatan que la combin...
