Treating Chronic Pain with a Plant-Based Diet – a Case Report

Stewart Rose and Amanda Strombom
Additional contact information
Amanda Strombom: Plant-Based Diets in Medicine, USA

Orthopedics and Rheumatology Open Access Journals, 2019, vol. 15, issue 4, 99-100

Abstract: Treatment with a plant-based diet has already been shown to be safe and effective both for several pathologies with chronic pain as a symptom. Here we describe the case of a 41-year old male patient who had been injured at work in 2009 and suffered from pain and restricted range of motion in his lumbar spine and legs for three years. During that time, he was treated with pain medications, including epidural steroid injections and a short course of opioids. The patient then underwent L4-L5 microdiscectomy followed by lumbar laminectomy and L5-S1 discectomy, fusion and was given a series of steroid epidural injections. However, he remained with very significant pain, limited range of motion and was unable to work. The patient was then referred to a physical and rehabilitative physician who prescribed a plant-based diet. Recognizing that standard treatment did not achieve the results he hoped for, the patient was open to the idea and embraced it whole-heartedly. He was also encouraged to eliminate caffeine and alcohol, and to rely on water for hydration, and to start some gentle physical therapy. Within 2 weeks, the patient noticed a reduction of symptoms. Within a month he no longer experienced back pain and his range of motion was improving. He gradually lost 50 lbs and regained the ability to walk and stand straight. Within three months he was able to resume work. The patient was very satisfied with the role of the plant-based diet in relieving his symptoms and enabling him to resume a normal and productive life.

Keywords: journal of orthopaedics; orthopaedics journals impact factor; orthopaedics articles impact factor; scholarly publishing orthopedics journals; juniper publishers opena ccess orthopedics journal; Rheumatology; rheumatology journals impact factor 2018; rheumatology journals impact factor; rheumatology open access journals; juniper publishers review (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://juniperpublishers.com/oroaj/pdf/OROAJ.MS.ID.555918.pdf (application/pdf)
https://juniperpublishers.com/oroaj/OROAJ.MS.ID.555918.php (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:adp:joroaj:v:15:y:2019:i:4:p:99-100

DOI: 10.19080/OROAJ.2019.15.555918

Access Statistics for this article

Orthopedics and Rheumatology Open Access Journals is currently edited by Sophia Mathis

More articles in Orthopedics and Rheumatology Open Access Journals from Juniper Publishers Inc.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Robert Thomas ().