Study: Polyamine-free Diet Relieves Pain Before and After Spine Surgery

According to a study presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists’ annual meeting, diets that are lacking in polyamine may result in significant pain relief for  chronic pain sufferers before and after they undergo spinal surgery. Polyamines emanate from the amino acid metabolism and urea cycle, which occurs in the liver and the kidney. Received through food, polyamines are essential to cell growth and are key to the healthy function of the nervous system. In a the study, sixty-four lumbar spine surgery patients were divided into two groups, one placed on a diet of a drink with low polyamine content and fruit-free European breakfasts for days before and after the surgery, the other with a reduced number of low-polyamine drinks and a normal diet. The patients in the first group saw reduced pain levels before and after the surgery.

“Polyamine-deficient diets are a new, safer technique for improving the management of pain in combination with the analgesic drugs classically used in humans. Functional foods, defined as food that may provide health benefit beyond traditional nutrition, is a new, promising therapeutic option,” says the study’s author. Click here to read the full story.