Can Food Ease Your Pain? Yes, But Then It Makes It Worse
It's a delicious but vicious cycle: Food, particularly high-sugar and high-fat foods, can bring acute relief both from physical and emotional pain, studies show. But in the long run, overeating may make your pain worse.
"My
patients say when they hurt they have to eat," says Dr. Francis Keefe, Ph.D.,
professor in the department of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University,
Durham. Unfortunately, pain relief from food is usually
short-lived, and the long-term consequence is weight gain. And that can make your joints hurt, not to mention your self-esteem.
Dr. Keefe specializes in the psychological aspect of pain, and was speaking at the World Congress on Osteoarthritis where the main topic was joint pain. The patients he was discussing were obese patients with osteoarthritis in their knees. Among such patients, overeating is common strategy for coping with pain, but it feeds the vicious circle by fueling weight gain and creating more pressure on the knees.
Whether we're obese or not, we all know the comfort that comes from our favorite food, and most of us have seen the results if we overindulge in that comfort. So, how can you break the cycle and find another source of comfort - one that is calorie-free?
Dr. Keefe and his team have studied the psychological profile of overweight people who use binge eating to ease their knee pain. Interestingly, hand in hand with their need to overeat, many of them have a negative attitude, which psychologists call "catastrophizing".
People who catastrophize see the worst and expect the worst out of life. So, when it comes to pain, their negative attitude actually makes the pain worse.
"Catastrophizers are at increased risk of pain ... because they have a tendency to focus on and exaggerate the threat of pain, and negatively evaluate their own ability to deal with the pain," says Dr. Keefe. "Patients who say 'I really have confidence I can do something about this' are the ones who experience way less pain."
If you are overweight and in pain, an attitude change may not be easy to achieve, but it can be done. "There are protocols to teach people better coping strategies, and now a number of studies are showing that training in these types of skills can produce significant reductions in pain and psychological distress," he says.
--Kate Johnson is a freelance medical journalist who writes for both physicians and the general public. Her goal is to increase medical understanding, stimulate thought, and foster illuminating exchange between her two audiences.
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Heavy weight is really a concern these days as people are used to sit for a long time on work and don’t have time for exercises. You have pointed out some really nice tips for those suffering from this health problem. Nice one.
Hello Kate, I'd like to know what Pain do you have to deal with? Do you have Lupus (like myself), Fybro, nerve damage, neuropathy, cronic headaches (migraines), etc.? or do you just write about them??