Sugar and chronic pain - is there a connection? I regularly tell my clients that reducing sugar is an essential part of treating chronic aches and pain. Most of us are aware that eating sugary foods is bad for your teeth, and potentially leads to gaining weight. However, most people have no idea what the effects of eating sugar may be having on the soft tissue structure of the body, especially fascia (connective tissue). Is sugar contributing to your pain? So how does eating sugar lead to aches and pains? Excess sugar in the blood leads to a pathological process called glycation. One of the effects of glycation is the binding of sugar molecules to fascial proteins, causing them to thicken and become stiff. The body then treats these tangled up molecules as foreign bodies and initiates an inflammatory response in an attempt to get rid of them. Over time this state of inflammation may cause painful symptoms. There are also theories to suggest that glycation speeds up the aging process and may be the primary cause of heart disease and insulin resistance. So what constitutes a sugary diet? Most people seem to only think of sugar in terms of sweets, chocolates and deserts, or the white stuff that you have on your kitchen table. The truth is that all carbohydrates are forms of sugar, so if you think of yourself as not having a sweet tooth, but regularly eat foods such as breads, pasta, grains, fruit and cereals, you may be consuming a lot more sugar that you think. But I eat healthy foods… Unfortunately in the western world we have started to develop an addiction/dependence on sugar without realising it. Foods that we may have thought of as being healthy such as wholemeal breads, low fat alternatives and granola cereal have surprisingly high amounts of sugar in them.It is virtually impossible to buy supermarket packaged food that does not contain excessive amounts of sugar. The truth is unless you cook all your food from scratch it is very difficult to know exactly how much sugar you are consuming. Is sugar really that bad? Have you even wondered why there is so much sugar in the western sociaty, eventhough it seems so bad for you? For those that want to know more, I suggest you watch this video. Sugar: The Bitter Truth. To summarise… it is unrealistic to cut out sugar completely. This post was simply to make people more aware of the dangers of excess sugar consumption, and how, in the western world sugar is in almost everything we eat. If you are currently in chronic pain, then I would seriously suggest cutting sugar dwon to 20g / day for at least 3/4 weeks. Please refer to our blog kinetichealth.co.nz/news/ to stay current with topics, insights and the most recent research.
Posted on: Tue, 03 Jun 2014 08:22:38 +0000