Hidden Link Between Artificial Sweeteners and Chronic Pain
If you are living with chronic back or neck pain, you've probably experimented with everything—stretches, heating pads, over-the-counter medications. But have you thought about the impact your diet drinks and “sugar-free” snacks may have? Evolving research suggests that artificial sweeteners might be sabotaging your pain relief efforts through an unexpected pathway: your gut. Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic is here to explore any potential avenues to help you get back to enjoying your life!
THE GUT-PAIN CONNECTION
Your gut does more than digest food—it houses trillions of bacteria that affect 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 demonstrated that artificially sweetened foods can essentially cause chronic pain by disrupting the gut microbiota. (1) This isn't just connection—the research shows a causal relationship between using these sweeteners and increased pain levels.
HOW SWEETNERS TRIGGER PAIN
When you eat artificial sweeteners, they change the composition of your gut bacteria. These disrupted 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 Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic, this inflammation can raise 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 you see us again, you might want to look into whether artificial sweeteners are bothering your pain levels. Consider trying a two-week experiment where you reduce or swap out products containing artificial sweeteners. This could involve picking to drink water or herbal tea instead of diet sodas, or selecting snacks without ingredients like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin.
Chiropractic physicians recognize that pain management requires a whole-body approach. While spinal adjustments tackle mechanical dysfunction, decreasing 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 big addition to your pain relief strategy with Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic.
Your path to back pain relief and/or neck pain relief may begin with what you take out of your shopping cart.
CONTACT Dr. Hoang's Chiropractic Clinic
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 Montreal chiropractic patients may experience.
