BASICS
- Cutting down on sugar seems to be helpful for some patients with a variety of painful conditions.
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IDEAS
Pain may be related to an indirect chemical or inflammatory effect.
Cutting down on sugar in the diet has helped several of my patients with management of their pain.
The improvement in pain following reduction of sugar in the diet may be related to an improvement of deep sleep patterns which is associated with our internal healing mechanisms.
It may also be related to a reduction in the inflammatory component of the uric acid by-products of fructose metabolism.
Read more in Sleep section.
Vessel and Tissue Inflammation in Neuropathy
A combination of ischaemia (decreasing blood supply), compression and inflammation occurs in a peripheral nerve.
As a result of this combination there is a microvascular intraneural occlusion which effectively interrupts the normal transport of nutrients up and down a nerve fibre. Given enough time, and with associated inflammation, the nerves themselves become scarred and lose their protective fat layer. That results in an ongoing progressive deterioration of function and symptoms.
The model of fructose and polyunsaturated oils combining to give us the subintimal inflammation in every blood vessel promotes this concept. It creates the susceptibility to damage from even mild compression.
The reversal of our dietary intake has the potential to improve some symptoms. Anecdotally I have some patients now who have in fact done this with an improvement in their neurological type symptoms.
There is nothing to lose from reducing the sugar and processed food intake in the diet for a few months and seeing what happens.
Painful Conditions
Cutting down on sugar seems to be helpful for some patients with a variety of painful conditions including those related to nerve compression, period pain (dysmenorrhea) as well as chronic pain management.
Read about the Damage Process
The NoFructose Handout Starter Sheet is your take away summary of this web site. Read it at the NoFructose Starter Sheet area of this web site or download it.
MORE INFORMATION
Headaches and Migraine
- Migraines are generally associated with vasoconstriction of arterial vessel.
- Treatment is often aimed at giving vasodilatation drugs.
- Headaches can be affected by sugar load.
- Vasculitis (arterial inflammation) is often associated with headaches.
- There is NO downside to trialling a period of time off Fructose and Polyunsaturated Oils.
- Sugar loads can have a stimulatory effect with increased heart rate and blood pressure.
Headaches and Migraine Blog
Facebook Blog Mar 3 2013
I have seen a few people recently where headaches and migraines are part of their problems. When they cut sugar out of their diet their headaches get better. When they take it back up again their headaches come back. Interesting.
There are some basic biochemical actions which might be accounting for this including the vasodilatation/constriction effects of Uric Acid on Nitric Oxide in blood vessels.
There is a chemical in our blood vessel walls called Nitric Oxide. It is involved in the control of blood flow through vessels. Uric acid (better known in association with gout) inhibits the effect of Nitric Oxide. Uric acid is a side by product of Fructose metabolism. Cutting back on Fructose should lead to a decrease in Uric Acid load on the system and therefore less effect on blood vessel walls. I cannot prove this yet but happy for someone to do that research. I have ideas for a hundred research projects but just not enough time.
Other potential relationships are with sleep patterns. The deep phases of sleep are the ‘repair’ times and some research out of Sydney suggests that carbohydrate loads in the 4 hours up to sleep can affect sleep patterns. A far as I am aware no one is looking at Sugar load in the evenings and sleep cycles. There’s another study begging.
In the interim, cutting out sugar is an inexpensive option to try. I cannot think of any significant side effects for avoiding sugar and processed food for a couple of months.
Try it and see what happens. You might get a pleasant surprise.
Dysmenorrhoea or Menstrual Period Pain Blog
Facebook Blog Mar 19 2013
Several women tell me they stop their intake of sugar for a week prior to their periods being due. It helps with the pain.
All anecdotal but there are some converts.
It costs nothing to cut down on fructose in the management of pain and you might very well be surprised by the benefits that occur.
The underlying disease process model of Fructose and Polyunsaturated Oils is that of chronic inflammation in the blood vessel wall.
This is a topic easily open to research and I have mentioned it to a few female doctors. Not much luck getting a study group together as an Orthopaedic Surgeon.
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ARTICLES
More to follow