Nutritional Pain Management

PAINWeek Podcasts

Multiple guidelines have recently emphasized nonpharmacologic interventions for chronic pain, with the role of nutrition strikingly absent. Given pain’s potential coexistence with metabolic dysregulation, including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and nutrient deficiency, nutrition-based interventions hold promise as an approach for improving pain status in multiple patient populations. Unfortunately, nutritional and dietary approaches can be complex and time consuming to implement and daunting for clinicians feeling inadequate preparation to provide guidance. Fortunately, nutrition pain management can often be provided in staged interventions based on patient status. This session will review why nutrition is often overlooked, as well as the foundational science of how it can both promote and relieve pain. The session will discuss how to evaluate nutritional status and initiate foundational anti-inflammatory interventions. Also to be examined is the role of nutritional supplementation in individualized cases including vitamin D, omega-3s, magnesium, and other emerging nutrients. The session will conclude with a discussion of how to combine nutritional interventions as a long-term strategy for improving both pain and metabolic status.