Daisy Zamora, PhD, and Keturah (Kim) Faurot, PhD, MPH, PA, Associate Professors in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation were recently awarded an R34 Clinical Trial Planning Grant from the NIH National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases. Collaborators on this project include Anastasia Ivanova, PhD, Professor, in the Department of Biostatistics, Gillings School of Global Public Health, Kevin Carneiro, DO, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery, and Beth MacIntosh, MPH, RD, from the UNC Health Metabolic & Nutrition Research Core.
Chronic pain afflicts millions of people, and many treatment options have serious side effects. A diet-based approach has shown promise in regulating pain signaling mechanisms and decreasing pain. The purpose of this grant is to develop a clinical trial to test whether and how this diet-based approach reduces pain in adults with chronic low back pain.
The R34 grant will be used to set up the infrastructure for a 5-year multisite randomized controlled trial testing the efficacy of a mechanism-based dietary approach for chronic low back pain.
“The biological mechanisms underlying chronic pain processes are highly complex. Many times, the severity of an injury is unrelated to the amount of pain a person feels,” says Dr. Zamora.
Previous research has shown that certain nutrients are precursors to molecules that amplify pain signals, while others are precursors to molecules that dampen them. By reducing the intake of nutrients that amplify pain signals and increasing the intake of nutrients that dampen pain signals, we can theoretically reduce the amount of pain that a person with chronic low back pain feels.
Zamora continues, “the funding we received will allow us to set up a clinical trial to test the efficacy and biochemical mechanisms of this intervention in a carefully controlled setting.”