Individual Support
Pain

Whether it’s a headache or migraine, arthritis, back pain, IBS, colitis or gout, pain is difficult to live with.  It can make you anxious, and tends to dampen your mood a lot of the time.

Thankfully, there are quite a few ways in which a nutritional assessment  may be able to help you.

• Most importantly, some foods increase or exacerbate pain while others can reduce it.  All pain is a process of inflammation, and there are certain foods which contain pro-inflammatory substances.  The dairy family, for example, produce high levels of arachidonic acid, which in turn produces high levels in the body of leukotrienes and thromboxanes. (These are the substances which are blocked by drugs such as paracetamol, but also by ginger!)  Other foods also reduce or block these same inflammatory pathways. 

Many people are simply eating the wrong balance of foods for their condition, inadvertently making their situation worse day by day.

• A diet high in processed food, tea and coffee can also make pain worse because of the extra strain they place on the liver and digestive tract.  That’s why so many women have fewer period cramps when they cut down on their coffee.

• Food intolerances can also be direct pain triggers, especially with arthritis, migraines, IBS and inflammatory bowel disorders.  So finding out which foods don’t suit you can make a huge difference.
  Pain levels are also greatly influenced by excess oxidation in the body, especially when combined with insufficient anti-oxidants in the diet.

A nutrition consultation can help you to unravel what may be triggering, maintaining or worsening your pain  - or even get rid of it altogether!  I have had considerable success across a wide range of pain conditions.