Carbs and Pain...is there a connection?

Have you talked to your doctor about this?

I don't know about carbs but I saw something about gluten and sugar and since my body is filled with pain as well, I'm seriously thinking about it.

I agree that you should probably talk to your dr. BUT, yes, excess carbs can cause inflammation in many parts of your body. I'm not an expert but I have been seeing a nutritionist and have followed a primal eating plan for 6 months and feel I have learned alot. Primal is low-carb by default b/c you cut out all things processed, including bread and pasta and refined sugars... low-carb, clean foods, high healthy fat and lean protein and lots of fruits and veggies, nuts and no chemicals. I have never felt better and I'm down over 50 lbs! Last winter I had a bad bout of tendonitis in my foot and underwent 4 months of therapy. I also had headaches and other pain, all of which are gone now. Good luck to you!

yes! when i eat too many carbs (over 120 or so grams), my body is in pain. if i keep my carbs reasonable (around 100 grams), i am pain-free. good luck experimenting with what will make you feel the best!

Have you talked to your doctor about this?

That's what I was thinking.

The problem is that most doctors will try to prescribe something She should look for a naturopath or a doctor who specializes in functional medicine

Without knowing how many carbs you are getting per day. It could be your body getting ready to go into ketosis which is the mild fat burning stage in which your body burns fat. My carbs are under between 80-85 gm a day the first 5 days of getting there are tough, but after that it in an energy blast off.. And the first week I lost 9 lbs. During that first 5 days headaches and fatigue and general aches and pains are expected.. If you not sure I would see a physcian Medications ie anti inflammatories can actually cause you to retain fluid as well.. Drink at a minumum of 4 extra 8 oz cup of H20 when taking those medicaions. Hope you find some answers but more importanly some relief.

Laurie

Processed carbs yes.. msg causes joint pain. You could have a gluten intolerance as well, I've heard people with gluten intolerance of pain.. so breads, pasta's, etc. Anything with wheat. High acid foods can cause joint pain as well.. like red meat, pork, even chicken at times.

I was wondering if anyone knows of a connectionbetween carb intake and increased pain. I have a considerable amount of pain all the time, mostly joints...knees, hips, ankles, and such. I have been cutting back on carbs, with yesterday being very low and I felt pretty good all day and slept pain free last night. I do get fairly regular exercise by pushing through the pain but am tired of living on ibuprofin & tylenol....it is so bad for a body. Help please!!

I discovered the same thing a few months ago. I stopped eating gluten and my joint pain went away. I've had 5 knee surgeries from sports injuries and my doctors all said my pain was just normal, I have arthritis, deal with it or take pain killers all the time. Ugh.

I had been totally grain free for a while but then had a few days where I ate something with gluten and my knees swelled up visibly and all the pain came back in my knees and hips. Cut the gluten out again and it's gone in a few days.

Needless to say, I'm off the gluten permanently now. I had no idea that it would cause joint inflammation - I figured that if I was sensitive to gluten it would give me gastro-intestinal symptoms, which I've never had. But it can affect you in different ways.

Right now I'm in the middle of an anti-inflammatory diet where we cut out most potential allergens/things that would cause sensitivities and I'm adding things back one at a time to see what else bothers me. So far just gluten and quinoa (which just makes me bloat).

Anyway, for me it's not the carbs - I can eat boatloads of veggies and even a good amount of fruit - it's grains/gluten that cause the joint pain.

Over the last 9-10 years, I have learned that msg, sugars, and gluten increase my experience of pain. Sugar is an inflammatory agent so it would stand to reason that it would exacerbate any arthritis that you may have.

But I still eat lots of carbs! I would not advocate cutting all carbs out. Try taking out one thing at a time so that you can ID the real culrpit(s)

Have you been tested for celiac disease? I am celiac, and my body reacted in horrible ways to gluten (which is in most processed carbs) once I eradicated gluten the joint pain and fatigue vanished. I now eat a lot of complex carbs and never suffer with the previous issues I had when I ate processed carbs.

I'm all for going to the doctor if you can't figure out the joint pain and think you have an injury or something that needs to be treated.... but if you can change your diet and the pain goes away... what do you need the doctor for exactly?

Every time I go to the regular doctor/ortho for my joints they just tell me to take more pain killers to control inflammation. Which in turn, destroys my stomach and then I just have stomach pain instead of joint pain. Gee thanks. When I complained about that I was offered more medicine to control the stomach pain. No one ever suggested that I could benefit from changing my diet.

Have you thought about what you ate in lieu of carbs when you felt better? Like more veggies? Perhaps it was the increase in whatever else you were eating that helped with the inflammation as well. I find that the more greens I eat, the less pain I'm in. Just food for thought.