Patient's believes on effects of food on musculoskeletal pains

Patients frequently complain of chronic pain, which was affected by some foods. Previous investigations showed beneficial effect of some kind of fruits and seeds on pain. The aim of present study is to determine believes of the patients with chronic pain that wether food affects their pain. This cross-sectional analysis performed on 455 patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain in Yazd rhomathology clinic / Iran. Patient’s points of view were assessed in terms of 97 variants of eating materials. The data were analyzed using statistical software SPSS-13. Of 455 patients enrolled at the study, more than 50% believed that food affects some hew on pain perception. The age of patients ranged 14-81 years old (mean: 44.95, SD: 14.67). Of them, 77.1% were female and 22.9% male, which 57.8% of studied people complained of mechanical pain, 36% of inflammatory type, and 6.2% of other types of pains including non-specific ones. In meat groups, beef and sausage increased pain in majority of them (beef: 32.9% increase the pain & 1.3% decrease it), dairy products in most of the patients decreased pain (milk: 31.1% decrease the pain & 10.5% increase it) but Grains, cereals and rice increased the pain (rice: 26.3% increase the pain & 2.6% decrease it) but bread decreased their pain (10.1% decrease the pain & 1.8% increase it). Cucumber (31.6% increase the pain & 4.4% decrease it), water melon (30.3% increase the pain & 6.6% decrease it) and some of the sour fruits increased usually their pain. Lettuce (21.9% increase the pain & 11% decrease it), potato, tomato, beans and aubergine increased their pain severely, but okra (11.8% decrease the pain & 2.2% increase it), carrot, onion, garlic and celery decreased the pain. All nuts like almond, walnut, hazelnut and pistachio diminished their pain, which walnut was the most effective one (37.7% decrease the pain & 0.4% increase it). On the other hand, nuts especially walnut are believed to be pain-relieving. In conclusion food may have some impact on musculoskeletal pain as mentioned by our patients. It seems that abstinence of some drinks and foods can be helpful in better control of chronic pain in selected patients, that are named as cold (Sard) food in our traditional culture. More multi-population studies are suggested for more precise and comprehensive results.