Studies Find a Correlation Between High-Fat Western Diet and Pain | Life

The Western diet is associated with many illnesses, and chronic pain can now be added to the list.

Fat provides important health benefits, but it may be too good. Most people eat too much omega-6 fat and lack omega-3. A new study explores the potential effects of omega-6 fats on neuropathic pain in people with diabetes and other symptoms.

Researchers at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio have studied the effects of omega-6 fatty acids themselves by measuring the role of these dietary lipids in pain conditions, as the substance itself causes pain and inflammation. I found that it looks like.

UT said in a statement that the abundance of omega-6 polyunsaturated fats that stand out in a typical Western diet “functioned as a significant risk factor for both inflammatory and neuropathic pain.” I am.

Diabetes, autoimmune diseases, and cardiovascular disease are known to be affected by nutritional choices, the researchers said. However, the overdose of omega-6 fats found primarily in commonly consumed processed foods has not been studied in terms of the acids themselves and their role, especially in pain.

A team of biomedical sciences, chemistry, and neurology from the South Texas Veterans Healthcare System, led by Dr. Jacob Boyd, studied polyunsaturated fatty acids in both mice and humans.

Both omega-6 and omega-3 fats are essential for proper nutritional health, but new studies suggest that the predominance of the former can have detrimental effects. The five-year study was published in the June edition of the journal Nature Metabolism.

Omega-6 fats are found primarily in foods that contain vegetable oils and are beneficial to some extent.

“But the obesity-related Western diet has far more acid levels in foods from corn chips to onion rings than healthy omega 3 fats in sources such as fish, flaxseed and walnuts. It is characterized by being expensive, “said a researcher’s statement. Said. “In general, unhealthy foods high in omega-6 fats include processed snacks, fast foods, cakes, and fatty salted meats.”

Researchers have found that reversing these diets and increasing omega 3 fat “significantly reduced these pain conditions.” “The authors also showed that skin levels of omega-6 lipids in patients with type 2 diabetic neuropathy pain were strongly associated with reported pain levels and the need to take analgesics. “

While more research needs to be done, the study “lays the foundation for new clinical trials and ultimately provides a new path for clinical treatment of neuropathy,” said Duke University researcher Aidan. McGinnis and Luron Ji wrote in an accompanying editorial.

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