Diet therapy resources for chronic pain

As part of my PhD, I asked people how their chronic pain impacts their ability to eat healthily, and what barriers they faced with implementing dietary advice. Patients told me that previous advice from healthcare professionals either neglected diet altogether, or was too generic that it wasn't suitable for them or their circumstances. Furthermore, they said that sometimes they found health care providers as overly judgemental about their ability to manage weight and diet.  I have found that patients with chronic pain did not have access to individualised and specific dietary advice from a dietitian, nor did they receive any specific practical advice about making dietary changes to assist managing pain. Patients told me that they found advice on the internet about diet and pain confusing and difficult to navigate.

My research suggests that dietary advice for patients with chronic pain needs to be specific, individualised, culturally sensitive and accounting for the financial, environmental, medical and social context of the person. In addition, patients said that advice needs to be supported with practical resources delivered by a ’show me, don't tell me’, approach. Patients have said that they don’t want to be given advice that restricted the foods that they enjoyed and “made their life worth living”. In fact, most patients felt that they had a reasonable knowledge about healthy eating but struggled to apply their knowledge to their own circumstances. In addition, a significant number of patients experienced comorbidities such as gastrointestinal problems or disordered eating and were uncertain how these could be managed.

Diet therapy educational resources were co-produced with patient experts-by-experience and staff from Rethinking Pain so that they are culturally sensitive to people living in Bradford and Craven District. The resources focus on making dietary change a positive experience by asking patients to make ‘tiny changes’. Tiny changes focus on small dietary successes that accumulate overtime to build confidence about the ability to change. The resources are a variety of short video clips that make up a longer series of diet therapy modules patients can access these as standalone short video clips or as a complete module. Patients are assigned a health coach who supports the patient make dietary and other lifestyle changes.

The dietary resources can be found at www.rethinkingpain.uk.  and I am currently evaluating the impact of the resources on patients with chronic pain.