Role of Nutrition in Treating and Managing Chronic Pain

By Hal S. Blatman, MD

Healing from pain is like healing from any other malady, and nutrition plays a significant role in the healing process. When we consider the relationship of food and healing, there are three rules to live by.

Do not put poison into your body.
Give the body the best octane to run.
Provide the body with the best raw materials to build new parts and repair old parts.

I suggest that patients never put poisons into their body including margarine and aspartame which is frequently marketed under the name “NutraSweet.” Margarine puts hydrogenated fat into our body. This is a dangerous substance that has been linked to several chronic diseases. Aspartame converts in the body to methanol and formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is embalming fluid and has been linked to cancer. Methanol causes brain injury, and in many people, also pain. Drinking more than 2 diet sodas per week may form more methanol in your body than you can detoxify, causing this substance to build up in your system. It may take two months to detoxify when you stop ingesting aspartame.

The human body is a high performance, biochemical Ferarri. Look at any 10 yr old. They take off from a dead stop at the crack of a bat, corner hard at each base, and wear out their tires. Just like the Ferarri, we are built to run on 100 octane fuel. Too many of us try to run on budget 20 octane fuel, run out of energy, and wonder why. The three biggest low energy foods culprits are:
Sugar
Wheat
Potatoes

The worst of these are sugar and white flour. Most people will function better, have less fatigue, pain and irritable bowel symptoms if they avoid these foods.

In addition to high-octane fuel, the Ferrari uses racing oil. Our bodies also run best on racing oil. The oil we eat is the fat that becomes the most important of the raw materials our bodies use to build new parts.

Believe it or not, fat does not make people fat. People more likely get heavy because they eat low octane fuels. Good fat also does not cause heart attacks. Macadamia nuts are very high in fat, and eating them has been shown to lower bad cholesterol in people.

We need fat to run. Among other things, the fats we eat become the raw materials making cell membranes. Cell membranes function to bring good things into the cell, and send bad things out of the cell. In white blood cells, cell membranes contribute to immune system function by killing invading organisms. We need healthy fat diets and remember, low or no fat diets are generally not healthy for us.

Hal S. Blatman, MD is the founder and medical director of The Blatman Pain Clinic, and a globally recognized specialist in myofascial pain. He is board certified in both Pain Management and Occupational and Environmental medicine.