Alright, I'll jump in first. How about past injuries, particularly musculoskeletal injuries? I feel that the injured among us are sometimes overlooked in the paleosphere. I'm always reading about these seminars in the woods of West Virginia or the glories of Crossfit and I'm thinking: wow, it would be nice to do that -- if my g*ddamned Achilles would heal!

I feel like everyone I know is trying to get along with some kind of athletic injury from their past: hamstring, back, knee, you name it. And yet I find surprisingly little discussion of this on paleo sites. Sure, there is general discussion of the theory behind it all, e.g., that we wouldn't have the problems we do if we hadn't been wearing the shoes we wear and hadn't been sitting in the cubicles we sit in. I like all of this and I agree with it. But there is not as much out there on "paleo rehabilitation." What are the specifically paleo ways to make this pain go away and get back into shape?

I suppose the reason for this relative absence could be that most people see good results for their inflammation when they switch to paleo. But I also suspect that there could be a silent, inflamed majority out there, wondering what to do.

(Although Richard Nikoley's recent post about pain was both welcome and fascinating: http://freetheanimal.com/2011/02/tension-myositis-syndrome-tms-can-your-mind-really-heal-your-back-neck-shoulder-butt-and-leg-pain.html)

So anyhow that's my vote, pain from past injuries.

Another possibly interesting thing could be the influence of carbs/fiber on Ankylositis Spondylans via the bateria Klebsiella (look for Ebringer). Peter at hyperlipid has some posts on this. I have a patient with fibromyalgia that follows the Ebringer 'dietary guidelines' with partial succes (partial maybe also because of difficulty in being 100% strict).

Gluten and pain is my choice among your options. Effects of gluten on stomach, heartburn, arthritis, inflammation in general.

Inflammation and pain. My back, neck and shoulders pop and crack all of the time. I feel stiffness across my shoulders as well. I cant seem to shake it even though Ive dropped, standard Paleo foods as well as dairy, eggs, nightshades, nut and seeds (it is much better though).

Edit: If you could also explore red meat and inflammation/pain. I posted a UC article on here stating that red meat causes inflammation and it wasnt really debunked. My guess is they studies conventionally grown meat (I.E high omega 6) but itd be great to see this topic tackled.

I've been working with my own chronic pain for about 25 years (I'm 40). The things that are most on my pain radar right now are:

• Leaky gut
• Intestinal flora
• Diet (in general), low to no-starch (specifically)

Contemplative practice has always been a major part of my strategy, so I'd love to see some work around that.

Great idea...thanks.

Kamal,

First of all: good luck with your plans!! Let us know when your website is up and working.

Pain is soooo very interesting, if you don't have any.

My paleo goggles have learned me a lot. Actually, I got to know the paleo diet through my own research on physical actvity, musculoskeletal health and pain. My interest in biology and my profession led me to the diet.

As a physical therapist, I only deal with musculoskeletal problems, and mainly non-rheumatic problems. Most of the pain/problems I treat are a consequence of how people use their bodies, or how they have used their bodies. That means they are mainly mechanical in nature, and not as much inflammatory. That is, following conventional wisdom.

Because every cell and every fibre in our body needs nourishment, diet must be important. And in rheumatology you will find more and more evidence of this, although the concept of paleo diet is not integrated, I have heard and seen elimination diets being more or less succesful. Guess what, gluten grains and dairy are the first things they eliminate.

Unfortunately I have not been able to change a lot of my patients eating behaviour, although I have a few who have made changes and are feeling differences.

Besides diet I think a lot of lifestyle issues could be adressed on your site, like the psychological and social mismatch between HG era and now, like the physical activity (over/under/other) and posture, like biophilia, sunlight, fresh air, like being on the internet all the time and being connected. I think even things like psychomotor development from babies and kids. Lots of things to cover.

Interesting blog by my absolute favourite pain researcher: http://bodyinmind.org.

Evolutionary medicine also has some interesting points, besides mismatch of diet, exercise and lifestyle. Randolf Nesse has some interesting papers about the smoke detector principle and the evolutionary survival value of our protection systems (pain, anxiety, ...). Trade offs rule in natural selection. Homo sapiens is not perfect.

Some suggested topics:

osteoarthritis and diet

statins that cause a lot of side effects, a major one being musculoskeletal pain!

shamanism and placebo/psychosomatics

Again, good luck and thanks already.

How about the activation of cold receptors for the treatment of chronic pain. It is an interesting new area of research on pain relief that appears to be independent of opioids. The best known cold receptor activator is menthol.

Analgesia Mediated by the TRPM8 Cold Receptor in Chronic Neuropathic Pain

A novel treatment of postherpetic neuralgia using peppermint oil.

TRPM8: from cold to cancer, peppermint to pain.

From bench to bedside: a case of rapid reversal of bortezomib-induced neuropathic pain by the TRPM8 activator, menthol.

Cold comfort pharm. This paper is a good one to start with.

Cooling of the skin has long been thought to be beneficial in pain states but intense cold is clearly noxious. Does cooling lead to pain or gain? Rapid progress in this controversy has been made since the discovery of specific ion channels of the transient receptor potential (TRP) family that are activated by cooling of sensory nerve cells to below body temperature. This review focuses on the role of one of these, TRPM8, which has been implicated in cool sensation and cold pain by recent knockout mouse studies, but remarkably also appears capable of eliciting a novel analgesic gating control over noxious inputs in chronic pain states. We discuss hypothetical mechanisms that could bring about this composite profile. It is clear that new and highly selective agents will need to be developed to further evaluate the potential therapeutic opportunities offered by low temperature sensitive TRP channels.

How much pain relief can be obtained by topical application of menthol to the skin is unknown and maybe drugs will have to be developed. Capsaicin in peppers and Isothiocyanates wasabi may also have similar effects.

This is epic Kamal. I look forward to you masterpiece and the learning journey!!

Hormones

--PPAR agonists-- fatty acids incl sat fats and fish oil. mthis is why i am a big fan of the multitalented omega3 which remap our cellular xommunication via the membranes and action potentials as well as controlling NFkB via PPAR and other nuclear mechanisms

--thyroid-personally i have observed several cases of fibromyalgia pain (and the corresponding mood disorders) improve 50-80% by appropriate improvements in thyroid function (and related thyroid parameters eg adrenals, vitamind D status, omega3, mag/zn/se). pain is brain and nervous system perception and thyroid and ALL the hormones affect the nervous system i have discovered

--GLA and ALA the 'good' omega 6 and the overlooked shorter chained omega3, respectively

--progesterone, dhea, preg, T, estriol

--avoidance of endocrine disruptors, live in the most polluted times and this translates to disrupted hormones, thyroids, leptin/insulin resistance, visceral fat, sarcopenia, damaged mitochondria, and elevated silent inflammation.

Causes of skin inflammation.

I know there are lots of possible causes but maybe something on the most common causes would be good to know about.

I take a daily prescription medication for chronic pain. I have chiari malformation (thanks mom!) and have had bad headaches since I was about 12. In layman's terms, chiari is when the base of your brain is too big for your skull and so it will push your brain and brainstem downward. My mom had pretty intense surgery for it back in 2006, but so far mine has only manifested as headaches on the left side of the base of my skull. Since I was young (maybe 12-14?) I would basically eat ibuprofen like candy...but it never helped. Finally when I was about 21 or so I went to a new doctor, he did some scans and diagnosed it and put me on a nerve blocker. I've been taking it about 7 years now and it helps immensely.

Since going paleo my headaches do seem less frequent and less severe. I'm not sure if I equal it to any certain thing being eliminated. Celiac disease runs in my family (mom again!) and while I've been tested and told I don't have it, I'm sure I have an intolerance of some sort. I did notice that when I would eat some dairy after being strict paleo for a month or so, I would have really bad joint pain. Which going paleo had previously eliminated, so you may want to look into the dairy/pain relation on your website as well.

I love your website idea. I can't tell you how many times I've googled "paleo + chiari malformation" just to see if anyone else who has chiari has switched to paleo and noticed a difference. Having a pain website to visit, like you described, sounds awesome! :)

Inflammation in general is something I am interested in. How does inflammation present? Is inflammation always accompanied by pain? What about internal vs. external inflammation? Chronic inflammation? How does one determine the cause of inflammation and then correct the problem?

I think a post about how to research pain would be a great help. I've asked various doctors about symptoms and they often write if off as "normal" or that it's caused by something that I know is not the cause.

For instance, I have "chronic inflammation" (hence my curiosity about inflammation) in my throat that my doctor said was caused by allergies. She told me to take allergy medication, but the medication itself is worse than the allergy symptoms (and I'm not convinced it's allergies, but that's another story). When I told her this, her only solution was to try a different brand. I did. It was worse, as I expected. She told me to try a different brand. sigh

Another topic could be about how to safely relieve pain. In high school, I took Advil almost daily to relieve headaches and other various pains. It was only much later (after dealing with rebound headaches) that I realized pills weren't the only option to relieving pain.

Pain as a symptom of vitamin, mineral or other chemical imbalances. For example bone and muscle pain associated with vitamin D supplementation at normally tolerated levels. If it's due to deficiencies in co-factors like vitamin A or K or due to individual sensitivity to its toxicity. Also nerve pain, magnesium, whatdoyaknow.

Good luck with your endeavor, Kamal. It's a great idea.

My big issue is dodging a "genetic" bullet: the family knees. At the age of 39, I feel better than I did at 19, but I'm constantly wondering if I'm still in for pain, stiffness, and eventual replacement like my mom, her brother, and my grandmother. I'd like to believe I'm not, but my left knee still clicks every few steps I take. The pain isn't there, but it still makes me nervous.

I'm new to the paleo world, and have a chronic pain condition (TMJ disorder, caused by being attacked by a dog when I was little, have titanium TMJ total joint replacements). Have been diagnosed with chronic regional pain syndrome as well.

I've been eating gluten free for about a month and strict paleo for 8 days. I feel incredible in comparison to before, but know there is room for improvement. I also have a website for people with this disorder. It's difficult because they are told to maintain a soft diet, which in turn, makes them gorge on carbs and sugar.

I would be interested (and I'm sure my readers would be as well) in a couple things:

• Diet and centrally mediated pain - for example, is there any way to prevent acute pain from becoming chronic?
• Gluten and it's effect on pain
• What could/should someone do that is brand new to this? ie: what are some tweaks or changes they could make that would show them great results?
• What to do (diet wise) when you're having a flare up - are there certain foods you should eat? how can you tweak your diet so it's less high maintenance when you're just not feeling good (so you don't start back up on the crap you shouldn't be eating).

These questions might be a little basic, but I know that these are topics I would love to read about and share with my readers. Being so new to my diet changes, I still haven't quite worked out how I will introduce them to my community....I just know that I feel SO much better, so I have to tell them about it soon! :)

Great idea for a site, btw! :)

-

headaches and arthritis pain.

All I know about gluten and pain is that when my husband drinks a Sara buckwheat ale from Belgium, his knee pain (from an old injury--nerve damage) completely disappears. Nothing else helps except complete knockout.

I've tried giving him hops supplements, feeding him actual buckwheat, and looking for other beer ingredients I could get in supplement form, but all I can figure is it must have something to do with the brewing process itself.

Very interested in posture and pain - sure that's my problem. I'm trying Gokhale but not very consistent and could do with someone to 'spot' me or at least keep reminding me. I would also be interested in the others in your list because maybe there is something there I have overlooked. I know you're not allowed to advertise or link but let us know what the site is called when it is up and running. Thanks.

The relationship between gluten/autoimmune illness/leaky gut and adhesive capsulitis a.k.a. frozen shoulder. I developed this condition during an ill-advised gluten challenge. Took 5 months to get it diagnosed.

Good luck, this looks absolutely fascinating

Collagen and diet/hormones