A study led by a Bournemouth University lecturer has found a link between chronic lower back pain and high glucose levels in a patient’s blood after consuming certain types of carbohydrates.
The researchers also found that women in the trial with the most intense back pain were more likely to have higher glucose levels in their blood, although they advise that more research is needed to establish the cause.
It is the first trial to examine the how the body’s metabolism responds to carbohydrate intake for people living with chronic pain.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, suggest that patients with chronic lower back pain could benefit from moving to a low carbohydrate diet to reduce the risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes.
Dr Omer Elma, Lecturer in Physiotherapy at Bournemouth University, led the study with co-researchers at Vrije Universiteit Brussels.
He said: “It is common for people with type 2 diabetes to also experience chronic pain, so we wanted to test our theory that chronic pain patients could be at a higher risk of impaired glucose regulation – meaning their bodies have difficulty controlling their levels of glucose, the sugar which comes from carbohydrates in our food.”
53 women with chronic lower back pain and normal blood sugar levels took part in this latest study, alongside a control group of 53 women with no chronic pain and who also had normal blood sugar levels.
On the first day of the trial, after 11 hours of fasting, they were asked to consume either a high sugar (sucrose) or low sugar (isomaltulose) drink.
Their blood glucose levels were measured at the start of the day and at regular intervals after consumption.
Two days later they repeated this process with the beverage that they had not consumed on day one.
“Measuring how a person’s blood sugar levels change after consuming food can provide the earliest indications of whether their carbohydrate metabolism is impaired,” explained Dr Elma.
The results showed that the women with chronic back pain had higher levels of glucose in their blood after consuming the high sugar drink compared to the women in the control group.
The blood tests also showed that the glucose stayed in their systems for longer.
The lower back pain group also had the most prominent decrease in blood glucose levels when consuming the low sugar drink after the sucrose drink.
There was no direct link established between pain tests carried out on participants as part of the trial and the consumption either drink.
However, the participants who self-reported the highest level of intensity of lower back pain at the start of the trial had the highest levels of glucose in their blood.
Dr Elma said: “Our findings could indicate that the patients with chronic pain were more likely to also have disturbed glucose and carbohydrate processing mechanisms.
“Therefore, to reduce their risk of developing conditions such as type 2 diabetes, they could benefit from a diet containing more low glycaemic index foods, such as fruits, nuts, grains, and lean meat, and avoiding high GI foods such as processed snacks and sugary drinks.”
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