Pain often comes from diseases caused or aggravated by diet and can be resolved by an optimal diet.
Changes in diet can also reduce pain and improve tolerance of pain in other ways.
irritant foods
Stimulants tend to trigger stress reactions or reduce tolerance of stressful situations. Stress in turn amplifies the sensation of pain by activating the sensory pathways it shares with pain signals.
Some stimulating foods heighten the sensation of pain. Caffeine and glutamates increase sensitivity to pain by triggering almost the same hormonal cascade as stress.
Most drugs including alcohol disrupt the quality of sleep which is essential to resist stress and physical rejuvenation.
Sugar, alcohol and refined carbohydrates like in white flour are often taken interchangeably to stimulate the pleasure centres and are very addictive. They disrupt hormonal systems in several ways promoting, anxiety and depression and mood swings which amplify the experience of pain.
In excess they bind muscle fibres by attaching to muscle protein. As well as reducing efficiency this increases the metabolic by-products to be eliminated which increases the chances of pain and tiredness.
healthy diet and lifestyle
A healthy body is quicker to recover from painful injury or illness and better able to maintain fitness, relax, feel good and tolerate pain. Keeping healthy reduces or eliminates many causes of pain.
For example most back pain is associated with atherosclerosis and blood vessel narrowing. Metabolic by products are not evacuated quickly enough and irritate nerve endings. Diet, exercise and stress reduction can help reverse artery blockages.
The lumbar arteries that nourish the spine are among the first to develop atherosclerotic plaques. As many as 10 percent of people have advanced blockages by age 20. When the lumbar artery is blocked the flow of oxygen and nutrients to the vertebrae and discs is reduced. The ability to repair damage and eliminate the cellular waste products that irritate nerve endings is compromised and degeneration may even result. In autopsy studies people who had a history of back pain have been found to have an average of two completely blocked arteries to the lower back and at least one more that was narrowed but not yet blocked. Those who had not had back pain had fewer blockages.
The metabolic by-products of eating more protein than necessary are toxic and tend to slow healing and increase pain.
Fat clogs arteries which slows healing and slows the elimination of irritating toxins and so reduces exercise.
Too much salt raises blood pressure and reduces the capacity to deal with stress.
The list is endless and complicated - the solutions are simple.
A healthy diet, exercise, not smoking, and reducing stress prevents and even reverses damage. The food pages have more detailed information and a few suggestions to begin to use foods that improve health and reduce pain.