Hidden Link Between Artificial Sweeteners and Chronic Pain
If you're living with chronic back or neck pain, you've probably tested everything—stretches, heating pads, over-the-counter medications. But have you considered what's in your diet drinks and "sugar-free" snacks? Emerging research suggests that artificial sweeteners might be impairing your pain relief efforts through an unexpected pathway: your gut. Layden Chiropractic is here to explore any possible avenues to help you get your pain under control!
THE GUT-PAIN CONNECTION
Your gut isn't just in charge of digestion—it's home to trillions of microorganisms that impact inflammation throughout your entire body, including your spine and neck. Recent groundbreaking research has revealed a direct link between artificial sweeteners, gut health, and chronic pain sensitivity.
A 2025 Mendelian randomization study by Zhao and colleagues demonstrated that artificially sweetened foods can actually cause chronic pain by disrupting the gut microbiota. (1) This isn't just connection—the research shows a causal relationship between consuming these sweeteners and higher pain levels.
HOW SWEETNERS TRIGGER PAIN
When you consume artificial sweeteners, they change the composition of your gut bacteria. These upset microbes trigger 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 Layden Chiropractic, this inflammation can heighten pain sensitivity in already vulnerable areas. Your spinal nerves become more reactive, making an already uncomfortable situation worse and potentially slowing your recovery.
TAKING ACTION
Before your next chiropractic appointment, you might want to explore whether artificial sweeteners are bothering your pain levels. Consider trying a two-week experiment where you reduce or swap out products that have artificial sweeteners. This could mean choosing water or herbal tea instead of diet sodas, or opting for snacks that don’t contain ingredients like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin.
Chiropractic physicians recognize that pain management requires a whole-body approach. While spinal adjustments focus on mechanical dysfunction, reducing inflammation through dietary modifications can significantly boost treatment outcomes. By supporting your gut health, you're creating an internal environment more favorable to healing and less responsive to pain signals. Small dietary changes might be a beneficial extra to your pain relief strategy with Layden Chiropractic.
Your way to back pain relief and/or neck pain relief may begin with what you don’t put into your grocery cart.
CONTACT Layden 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 Plainville chiropractic patients may experience.
