Nutrition As a Tool For Disease Treatment – Preventomics Project

It is well known that nutrition is one of the pillars of health, but, although nowadays there is a lot of information about how to eat, overweight, a fondness for junk food, excesses and diseases caused by poor diet are present in many people’s lives. Such is the importance of diet that when it comes to patients with specific conditions, health problems can be significantly improved or aggravated, and consequently also their quality of life.

Osteoarthritis is a pathology associated with comorbidity problems such as hypertension and cardiovascular diseases, but the most disabling symptom is chronic pain, as it directly affects people’s mobility and autonomy, with the psychological wear and tear that this entails. However, pain can be considerably alleviated by a healthy nutrition.

Chronic pain caused by osteoarthritis directly affects people’s mobility and autonomy. However, it can be considerably relieved by a healthy diet.

How does chronic pain relate to nutrition? It is a subject that is as complex as it is interesting, and requires a completely individualised approach, as it must take into account factors that will be different in each patient and will be related to their own experience of the disease and the way they eat. As Dr. Laura Arranz, nutritionist and specialist in diet and pain and indispensable collaborator of OAFI, explains, “chronic pain affects the diet and nutritional state of the person who suffers from it and also the diet affects the intensity and evolution of the pain”. Nutrition becomes another tool in the treatment of this health problem, and contributes to the well-being of people suffering from chronic pain. 

The aim of the PREVENTOMICS project is to facilitate access to truthful and contrasted nutritional information, in a personalised way, and to obtain the full potential of nutrition as a treatment. This is a project led by the EURECAT Nutrition and Health Unit and funded by the EU, which seeks to improve people’s health and prevent diseases through a personal nutrition and lifestyle plan. The project, which involves OAFI together with 18 partners, is based on the study of individual traits such as physical and behavioural characteristics, lifestyle, genotype, physical condition and even preferences. This careful personalisation will provide each patient with the necessary tools to safely take care of their diet, thus improving their own disease.

The aim of the PREVENTOMICS project is to improve people’s health and prevent diseases through a personal nutrition and lifestyle plan. This will provide each patient with the necessary tools to safely take care of their diet, thus improving their own illness.

You can find all the details about the methodology, approach and implementation of the PREVENTOMICS project in this explanatory video:

We also wrote an article for the PREVENTOMICS’ blog where you can find out more about the patient’s point of view on nutrition, as well as the relationship between chronic pain and nutrition: https://preventomics.eu/patients-vision-on-nutrition-why-is-nutrition-important-if-i-have-chronic-pain/  

 In addition, in the OAFI radio and TV programme we have talked about the importance of nutrition with Dr. Arranz on different occasions, here you can find one of the programmes entitled “Nutrition and pain relief” (in Spanish):