Pain is not a disease, but often a result or a symptom of disease.

Pain is a subjective experience - the perception of pain varies with individuals. Pain is often difficult to describe, but you know it when it strikes you. Nobody is immune from pain throughout lifespan. Some learn to accept pain as part of the unpleasant side of life, while others fight pain tooth and nail.

Your diet plays a significant role on pain control.

Pain is often connected with diet, given that it is related to disease, which may be a result of a poor diet. You reap what you sow, and you become what you eat.

Fortunately, foods not only can prevent pain but also effectively fight pain.

Research findings have shown that foods work against pain, even acute and chronic pain. Research studies have also shown how and why foods work against pain.

Foods have nutrients (not junk foods), which can work miracles in the human body against disease and pain.

At the site of injury, nutrients can reduce further damage done to cells and tissues. In addition, appropriate nutrients can cool your body's inflammatory response to the injury inflicted. Furthermore, they provide analgesia on pain nerves, thereby instrumental in alleviating, if not suppressing, the pain. Finally, good nutrients from foods may enhance your brain's chemicals to reduce pain sensitivity.

Different types of pain require different types of foods or nutrients for optimum pain control. For example, if you have arthritis, you need to use diet to stop the joint damage as well as to suppress the pain caused by the damage. If you have cancer pain, you may want to use foods to control the disease progress, thereby minimizing the resultant pain.

Research has shown that certain foods have certain food nutrients for different kinds of pain. For example, brown rice (not bleached white rice, which is partially depleted of its nutrients) soothe your digestive tract. Ginger has been used by the Chinese for thousands of years to cure migraine and headaches. Cranberry can alleviate pain due to bladder infections. Vitamin B6 enhances your brain's resistance to pain or its pain sensitivity.

Therefore, it is important to choose pain-free foods as your staple foods to avoid pain in the first place.

Pain-free foods are foods that do not cause any pain or allergy leading to pain. They include rice, green vegetables, colored vegetables (with the exception of tomatoes). They are all safe for consumption in any amount.

Then, you should add other foods that may ease your pain, that is, foods that improve your blood flow to prevent inflammation or stagnation; or avoid foods that tend to cause blockage in your blood vessels. All dairy products and foods rich in animal protein are not friendly to blood flow. Foods rich in fiber help your body remove unwanted fats and cholesterol, which may cause blockage and inflammation. It is also important that you eliminate any food that causes allergy and reaction in your body.

If intake of foods is inadequate in pain control, you may consider taking supplements of herbs, extracts, and vitamins to enhance your pain control.

Copyright (c) 2008 Stephen Lau