Vegan Diet Eases Diabetic Neuropathy Pain

A plant-based diet may help relieve diabetic nerve pain, according to a randomized trial presented here.

In the 15-patient DINE study, patients with type 2 diabetes and diabetic neuropathy who were randomized to a vegan diet and B12 supplementation had greater improvement in pain scores than those who only took the vitamin, according to Anne Bunner, PhD, and Caroline Trapp, MSN, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

They reported their findings at the American Association of Diabetes Educators meeting here.

"Diabetic peripheral neuropathy is underdiagnosed, partially because there's not a whole lot for physicians to offer these patients," Bunner said. "We wanted to know if in the setting of a randomized controlled trial a low-fat vegan diet can make a difference in diabetic neuropathy pain."

Bunner noted that current treatments for diabetic neuropathy -- which occurs in about half of all type 2 diabetes patients - only treat the pain, and do not treat the underlying cause of that pain.

An earlier observational study by Crane and Sample (J Nutr Med 1994; 4: 431-439) of 21 type 2 diabetics with nerve pain showed that being on a low-fat, high-fiber vegan diet for a month brought complete pain relief to 81% of participants, who lost about 11 pounds on average.

The majority of these patients were also able to reduce their diabetes medications and blood pressure medications.

To see whether similar benefits would hold in a randomized controlled trial, Bunner and Trapp conducted the DINE study (Dietary Intervention for chronic diabetic NEuropathy pain) in 15 patients with type 2 diabetes and neuropathy, who had a mean age of 57. About half were female and half had a college education or higher.

Patients were randomized to either a low-fat, high-fiber, plant-based diet with B12 supplementation or to B12 supplementation alone. Bunner noted that diabetic patients, especially those on metformin, tend to be deficient in B12.

There are a number of studies showing health benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets (1).

The proponents of such diets like to attribute these health benefits to the avoidance of animal foods.

However, there are many other factors at play.

A properly planned vegan diet consists primarily of whole foods. It is often called a Whole-Foods, Plant-Based (WFPB) diet.

This diet doesn't just eliminate animal foods… it also eliminates a number of foods that science has shown to be harmful.

What else do they remove, besides animal foods? Let's have a look…

Refined sugar: Causes insulin resistance and fatty liver. Strong links to obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

: Lead to rapid spikes in blood sugar, insulin resistance and weight gain. Strong links to many chronic, Western diseases.