#276 How the immune system, nutrition and mindset affect pain with Prof. Dr Deepak Ravindran

4th Dec 2024

Today we’re diving into how nutrition intersects with the complicated world of pain.

Today I have former guest and colleague Prof. Dr Deepak Ravindran to talk to us about how our immune system can impact our perception of pain, the different types of pain patients and how we can do better as medical professionals in the management of chronic pain.

This topic covers IBS, pelvic pain, chronic cystitis, fibromyalgia, migraine, functional gut disorders, long covid and more. Pain cannot be explained by a singular pathway, and I think there is so much we could all learn from Deepak's insights on this topic.

We discuss the different types of pain patients, how the immune system trains our responses to pain, how trauma in childhood can impact our responses to pain and why food plays a pivotal role.

Deepak is Honorary Professor at Teesside University and has worked as an NHS Consultant in Pain management, he’s author of the “Pain Free Mindset” a fantastic book that I recommend to both patients and medical colleagues. His new role is Director of Lifestyle Medicine for a primary care network (PCN) of GP practices in Reading, UK, working upstream to bring these insights early in the chain of pain management.

We talk about the use of fasting, anti-inflammatory diets, the importance of gut supportive diets and key ingredients that could be useful for chronic pain sufferers.

Episode guests

Prof. Dr Deepak Ravindran

Deepak is Honorary Professor at Teesside University, a full time NHS Consultant in Pain, MSK and Lifestyle Medicine and Author of the Amazon Bestseller “Pain Free Mindset”. He serves as the Deputy Editor of E-Pain Platform at Health Education England and The Chief Medical officer at Boutros Bear, a digital rehab platform. He is an associate with Peak Health Coaching and is working as Director of Lifestyle Medicine for a primary care network (PCN) of GP practices in Reading, UK.

Dr Deepak Ravindran adopts a trauma informed ‘upstreamist’ approach to pain practice and has helped set up award winning community pain service in Berkshire (IPASS) in 2015 and the Berkshire Longcovid Integrated Service (BLIS) in 2020. A Management Honours graduate from Henley Business School, he has been awarded the National Apprentice of the Year(2021) by Chartered Management Institute (CMI). He is part of the scientific advisory board at Curable, MyPain and PainD. His research interests include Longcovid biological mechanisms, Pain science education and behaviour change with the University of Teesside and as senior Visiting Fellow at the University of Reading.

The updated audiobook of his paperback Pain Free Mindset has been released in April 2024.

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