About this Research Topic

Background

Chronic pain is a significant burden on society, affecting between 20-40% of the population. It is pain that has persisted beyond normal healing time and is characterized by changes in nervous system function rather than indicating tissue damage. Chronic pain is challenging to treat, and as such, the role of nutrition (including functional foods) is gaining interest as an appropriate inclusion in effective pain management. The ways in which nutrition could modulate human chronic pain physiology is broad. The impact of nutrition, whether in form of dietary interventions or micronutrient alterations may include weight reduction, modulating inflammation, microbiome alterations, micronutrient/antioxidant sufficiency, as well as direct influence on nervous system function.

Further, dietary impact may extend further with comfort/binge eating, physical inability to prepare nutritious meals, and dietary patterns leading to metabolic comorbidities and depression which are additional targets for chronic pain management. A further driver of chronic pain is the perception of threat and subsequent ‘need to protect’ which can result in pain amplification and perpetuation. The extent to which perceived threat is attached to cognitions associated with eating patterns, and the underlying beliefs regarding the impact of diet on wellness, is not clearly understood and deserves further research.

This Research Topic aims to address nutrition as a modifiable factor in chronic pain management, or as an adjunct treatment. It is an important topic to provide evidenced-based information regarding the relationship of nutrition to chronic pain outcomes for clinicians wanting to use diet, therapeutic nutrition, or functional foods as a treatment strategy. This topic seeks to provide a broad range of nutritional approaches that can be then tailored to individual patient needs and preferences.

We aim to bring together the most recent research on nutrition, diet, and functional foods for management of chronic pain. Therefore, we include a wide range of subtopics, including but not limited to:

• Clinical management of pain in patients using nutritional approaches; these can include:
- Elimination diets (such as gluten free, ultra-processed foods),
- Inclusion diets (such as omega 3, specific micronutrients),
- Popular diets (such as ketogenic, vegetarian, Mediterranean),
- Calorie restricted diets (including intermittent fasting, protein sparing diets),
- Macronutrient altering diets (such as high protein, low-carbohydrate, low-fat), or
- Dietary eating patterns to improve behavioural aspects of chronic pain.
• Functional foods for management of chronic pain;
• Reports of adverse events and side effects related to the use of functional foods and natural compounds for the management of chronic pain;
• Ethnopharmacological studies on the use of functional foods and natural compounds for the management of chronic pain;
• Epidemiological associations between dietary patterns and pain syndromes;
• Diet composition in relation to chronic pain management; and
• Data from randomized controlled trials regarding the role of dietary and/or nutritional interventions in pain management.

Article types: To allow for a comprehensive review of the topic, we invite original research, case series & reports, short communications, mini-reviews, and review articles with focus on human studies or animal models.

Keywords: Chronic pain, Musculoskeletal pain, Pain management, Integrative medicine, Diet, Nutrition, Functional Foods, Natural compounds

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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