Healthy eating doesn’t just shrink your waistline; it can ease chronic pain. A new study reveals that enhancing diet quality can significantly reduce pain severity and improve quality of life, independent of weight loss. This discovery opens up new perspectives on how dietary choices can impact overall well-being, especially for individuals suffering from chronic musculoskeletal pain.
The concept of a healthy diet is deeply ingrained in public health discourse. From childhood, we’re taught about the benefits of a balanced diet—a vital aspect of preventing serious health conditions like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, various cancers, and, of course, obesity. However, the implications of diet extend beyond these well-known issues, particularly in how nutritional choices intersect with chronic pain.
Scientists from the University of South Australia (UniSA) conducted an intriguing study to explore whether improvements in diet quality, as part of a weight loss program, could lead to a reduction in chronic musculoskeletal pain. They were particularly curious whether a decrease in fat or weight played a role in any observed changes in pain levels.
“Chronic musculoskeletal pain is one of the most common and debilitating conditions worldwide,” explained Susan Ward, the lead author of the study. “While excess weight is often thought to put stress on joints and drive pain, our study shows that what you eat may independently influence chronic pain.” This perspective challenges the preconceived notion that weight is the sole contributor to pain severity.
The research involved analyzing data from 104 Australian adults diagnosed with overweight or obesity, who participated in a three-month dietary intervention focusing on restricting energy intake by about 30%. The study employed the Dietary Guideline Index (DGI) to assess diet quality, along with measures of chronic musculoskeletal pain (CMP) prevalence, pain severity, and pain-related quality of life. Weight, waist circumference, and body fat percentage were also tracked throughout the study.
Improvements in diet were evident from the DGI scores, which increased by 22%, indicating a notable shift toward healthier food choices. Participants incorporated more fruits, vegetables, lean meats, and whole grains into their meals while reducing alcohol consumption and processed food intake. Over the course of three months, participants also lost an average of 7.1 kg (15.7 lb) or approximately 8% of their body weight. Remarkably, the prevalence of chronic pain in the cohort dropped from 50% to 24%, and pain severity decreased significantly—especially when examining pain in the same sites before and after dietary changes. Quality of life, relating specifically to pain, also showed notable improvement.
What’s particularly illuminating from the findings is that while weight loss played a role in reducing pain, the improvements were directly linked to enhanced diet quality rather than solely attributed to decreased body weight or fat. Ward noted, “While weight loss helps many people, this study suggests that improving diet quality itself also eases the severity of people’s pain. This is a very hopeful finding for people living with chronic pain.”
That said, the study does have its limitations. Firstly, it lacked a control group, making it challenging to eliminate factors like placebo effects or natural changes over time. Additionally, the sample focused exclusively on individuals with moderate obesity, potentially limiting the applicability of the findings to those with severe obesity or pre-existing chronic pain. Other important factors, such as cytokines—the inflammatory molecules known to affect pain—were not measured, leaving some questions about the underlying mechanisms unaddressed. Furthermore, pain was subjectively self-reported, which introduces the possibility of both underestimations and overestimations.
Despite these limitations, the study underscores the importance of diet quality. Beyond the obvious benefits of weight loss, embracing a healthier dietary pattern—characterized by greater consumption of whole, nutrient-dense foods and reduced intake of processed options—may lead to significant pain reduction and improvement in overall quality of life. This realization could pave the way for integrating nutritional counseling into chronic pain management strategies, offering new avenues for treatment.
Alison Hill, a senior lecturer in nutrition at UniSA, highlighted the practical implications of the findings: “Eating well isn’t just about long-term disease prevention—it can also have an immediate and tangible impact on how we feel day to day. This study shows that adopting a healthier diet may lead to meaningful reductions in pain which improve overall well-being.” The study was published in the European Journal of Nutrition.
Source: UniSA