A Personalized Mediterranean Diet Improves Pain and Quality of Life in Patients with Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a form of chronic pain that affects a large number of women. It can start at any age and last a lifetime, with no cure. The Mediterranean diet is said to have an anti-inflammatory effect. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate possible beneficial effects of a personalized Mediterranean diet in patients with fibromyalgia.

Outpatients with fibromyalgia were recruited and invited to participate in the study, including clinical, nutritional, and dietary assessments. Patients received a personalized Mediterranean diet (DIET group) or a general balanced diet (NODIET group) to be followed for 8 weeks. All tests were carried out at baseline and repeated after 4 and 8 weeks.

In total, 100 subjects were included, 84 of whom completed the study. Most of the patients showed incorrect habits in terms of food choices, timing of meals and composition of nutrients. The DIET group showed an improvement in most of the fibromyalgia parameters, including the disability scores, fatigue, and anxiety.

The habit of eating inflammatory foods and/or eating meals with the wrong nutritional content would increase the negative status of patients with fibromyalgia. With this study, we confirm that proper attention to feeding habits would improve the quality of life of such patients.