Diet is a basic means of pain control according to experts

Chronic joint pain is an outward sign that your immune system is attacking your joints in an effort to protect you.  This causes inflammation and tissue destruction.

You may be surprised that your gut lining can become damaged and inflamed leading to what is called “leaky gut syndrome.”  The good news is that particular problem can be improved through optimal nutrition over time.  Why?  Because you are reducing hypersensitivity to foreign molecules by feeding your immune system high quality nutrients.

What you eat has a big impact on whether or not you will feel pain in your body.  Too much red meat and junk food and too few fruits and vegetables increase pain, observes Dr. Dillard, a leading pain specialist who practices in New York.

He and other experts state that healthy food choices can control the inflammatory process and increase your resistance to pain.  Here are a few diet suggestions that will hold down inflammation.

• Eat five to six servings of fresh fruits and vegetables a day.
• Eat as much raw food as possible.
• Eliminate refined foods.  For example, substitute whole grain cereal for a morning Danish (sweet roll, high-sugar processed cereal, cruller, etc.)
• Enjoy a mix of produce that is richly colored such as berries, red grapes, leafy greens, carrots, pumpkins, tomatoes and peaches.
• Eat healthy anti-inflammatory fats such as those from salmon, mackerel, herring, walnuts and olives.
• Avoid pro-inflammatory fats such as butter, corn oil, full fat dairy products such as whole milk, ice cream and margarine.
• Totally avoid trans-fats.

Supplement with fish oil
If you have aching joints, you may be able to skip the Advil.  New research from the University of Pittsburgh suggests that the omega-3 fats found in fish oil reduce chronic pain as well as ibuprofen and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) do.

• Get plenty of Omega-3 fish oils.  Swap red meat for fish a few nights a week and take daily fish oil supplements or a teaspoon of pollution free cod-liver oil.
• When neck and back pain sufferers replaced their daily NSAID with 1.2 grams of fish oil for 10 weeks, 60% reported feeling better.  In fact 59% stopped taking their prescription NSAIDs altogether
• Credit the twin power of EPA and DHA, the essential fatty acids in fish oil, which are converted into prostaglandins – compounds that fight inflammation.
• You can get 1,200 mg a day with a tablespoon of fish oil.  If it’s cod-liver oil, you’ll get your daily allowance of Vitamin D as well.
• If you want the fish oil in pill form Men’s Health recommends Nordic Naturals Ultimate Omega.  For more information on the study, go to Web MD’s fish oil study.

Try ginger
Modern medical studies show that ginger blocks the production of inflammatory compounds called prostaglandins.  Prostaglandins cause pain and stiffness in your joints.  So, instead of living with stiff, painful joints or taking drugs, try enjoying some ginger in your cooking, or take it as a supplement.  Just half a teaspoon a day.

Eat figs to stop migraine headaches before they ever start.  Researchers gave test participants just 200 mg of this fruit in supplement form.  The result, many quit having migraines.

Hot peppers halt cluster headaches.  This hot ingredient in chili peppers was shown in research to cause up to a 75% reduction in headache pain.

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