Denne viser hvordan systemisk betennelse, til og med lav-grads systemisk betennelse (som kommer fra kosthold), bidrar til å øke smertesensitivitet.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3866228/

In conclusion, this study shows that systemic inflammation elicited by the administration of endotoxin to humans, results in lowering of the pain threshold measured by 3 quantitative sensory testing techniques. The current work provides additional evidence that systemic inflammation is accompanied by changes in pain perception.

Inflammation leads to a broad constellation of adaptive changes, called the ‘sickness response’. Features of this response include fever, increased sleep, decreased locomotion, decreased food and water intake, and hormonal changes [1]. Furthermore, the pain threshold for painful stimuli is lowered, resulting in hyperalgesia, and normally non-painful stimuli can become painful (allodynia).

Systemic inflammation has previously been shown to alter pain perception in animals and humans. Recently, Benson and colleagues reported altered pain perception after the administration of a very low dose of endotoxin (0.4 ng/kg) to healthy volunteers, mimicking low grade systemic inflammation [26].