Hidden Link Between Artificial Sweeteners and Chronic Pain
If you're dealing with chronic back pain or neck pain, you've likely explored many options—from stretches and heating pads to over-the-counter pain relievers. But have you thought about the impact your diet drinks and “sugar-free” snacks may have? Developing research intimates that artificial sweeteners might be harming your pain relief efforts through an unexpected pathway: your gut. OrthoIllinois Chiropractic is here to explore any potential avenues to help you get your pain under control!
THE GUT-PAIN CONNECTION
Your gut does more than digest food—it houses trillions of bacteria that bear on inflammation in your spine, neck, back, and throughout your body. New research has pointed to a direct connection between artificial sweeteners, gut health, and how sensitive you are to chronic pain.
A 2025 Mendelian randomization study by Zhao and colleagues pointed out that artificially sweetened foods can truly cause chronic pain by disrupting the gut microbiota. (1) This isn't just correlation—the research shows a causal relationship between using these sweeteners and increased pain levels.
HOW SWEETNERS TRIGGER PAIN
When you consume artificial sweeteners, they change the composition of your gut bacteria. These disturbed microbes generate inflammatory responses that travel throughout your body. As documented in a comprehensive 2019 review by Guo and colleagues in the British Journal of Anaesthesia, the gut microbiota directly controls pain through multiple molecular mechanisms, including immune system activation and nerve sensitivity. (2)
For back and neck pain sufferers seeking help at OrthoIllinois Chiropractic, this inflammation can raise pain sensitivity in already susceptible areas. Your spinal nerves become more reactive, making an already uncomfortable situation worse and potentially slowing your recovery.
TAKING ACTION
Before you see us again, you might want to explore whether artificial sweeteners are affecting your pain levels. Consider attempting a two-week experiment where you reduce or swap out products containing artificial sweeteners. This could require picking to drink water or herbal tea instead of diet sodas, or selecting snacks that don’t contain ingredients like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin.
Chiropractic physicians understand that pain management requires a whole-body approach. While spinal adjustments get after mechanical dysfunction, reducing inflammation through dietary modifications can significantly enhance treatment outcomes. By boosting your gut health, you're establishing an internal environment more favorable to healing and less responsive to pain signals. Little dietary changes might be a beneficial addition to your pain relief strategy with OrthoIllinois Chiropractic.
Your way to back pain relief and/or neck pain relief may start with what you remove from your shopping cart.
CONTACT OrthoIllinois Chiropractic
Listen to this PODCAST with Dr. James Cox, on The Back Doctors Podcast with Dr. Michael Johnson as he illustrates the impact inflammation has on the immune system and the help chiropractic care like The Cox® Technic System of Spinal Pain Management that McHenry chiropractic patients may experience.
