Hi all

I came across a webpage on diet and thought it might be of interest. The page actually links to Lupus diet but in fact there was a link directing it from an RA page. I suppose as they are both an autoimmune disease they work similarly. http://rheumatism.suite1...and_lifestyle_in_lupus. It mentions that people with autoimmune disease are usually low on omega 3. I did find that when I cut right back on the red meat I felt better but unfortunately its hard to keep up new habits.

regards

live yogurt is good for scleroderma bowel disest sysym but real live yoghurt i make it .

off course not a cure would say a good diet and eating things which are super good for you would may be help the body to work better say like if your diet was full off sugar your body may have to work harder then you may be on pills for B.P and colsrstol .So diet wont cure but i wonder if if helps in long run with out looking at everything you eat and worrieing more of a life style to help with others things that in long run would annoy the r.a and joints and what ever else you suffer from .????

christine

After I had an extremely (life threatening) allergic response to sulfasalazine I decided to try diet to tackle this damn disease. To summarise I tried a vegan diet which cut out all the alleged acidic foods (red wine, citrus, spuds, tomatoes etc) to no effect. I also tried vegan without the allergic/inflammatory response (er, that'd be everything depending on how much you delve into it). I also tried vegan gluten-free.

None of them worked and in fact I got worse.

One day I craved cheese - a big no-no in all the recommended anti-RA diets - and ate a bucketload and things improved slightly.

Since then I've tinkered around and find I'm happiest (mentally and physically) on a strict vegetarian, mediterranean diet with lots of fresh veg, salad and olive oil. I admit I'm on a ton of medications which are suppressing the inflammatio but I definitely found that once I'd moved off a vegan + whatever I was trying that month and onto the veg/med diet things did improve noticably although not enough to take me off meds unfortunately.

I've studied all the diets and various therapies and even sign up to the Oxford Medical Journals to keep up to date with their research and tests and I've not yet come across one diet that is sustainable. A vegan/gluten-free diet with lots of Omega oils is medically proen to be the best but it's very difficult to sustain and most people drop off quite soon. Those that do manage to stick it out remain in a good state of health but unfortunately the research doesn't actually state whether that's with or without medications. Nobody seems to be able to stick teh diet more than 2 years and unfortunately there is a return to previous levels of inflammation once a normal diet is resumed. But again, the information is very restricted so there's no indication of what their normal diet is and how veggies compare to meat eaters. A lot more work is needed with a lot more subjects (none of the trials had more than20 volunteers) over a longer period of time. More ifnormation would be useful too, ie age, other illnesses, diet before the trial, medications etc. None of this was available.

I do statistical analyses so find the research reports wanting to say the least.

Some successful trials were conducted in Oslo with a very restrictive diet. The success rate was pretty high I think. Meat, gluten, fish (particularly seafood) and dairy were found to cause problems. Other research showed that those particular foods also caused an allergic response in the gut. Very interestig but very early days. And none of it worked for me

Hi all,
This topic is so interesting to me as I had been a strict
vegetarian for several years before getting R.A.
I did not even eat fish.
Also I was Alcohol free and had been for many years
out of choice.(However, research now shows drinkers to be at less risk of R.A.)
The Rheumatology nurse said that I should never have developed R.A
because I had been following the type of diet that they would recommend.
But I still got it.
However, may I add that prior to R.A, I had developed a stomach ulcer, which was proven
by Endoscopy, which of course may have given me "leaky gut syndrome"
which I have read researchers link to R.A.
(I proved negative for the Bacteria that cause over 80% of stomach ulcers. So
Antibiotics were not going to cure it.)
I tried a vegan diet and eliminated tea and coffee too.
Nothing worked for me.
I am still a vegetarian but also eat fish now for the oils.
I find that red wine is the best pain killer (only in the evenings of course),
for R.A pains, and luckily for me being on Hydroxychloriquine means that
I am allowed to drink it.
Last winter, I broke a bone in my Spine - so that it now tilts forwards at
that vertabra and was prescribed very heavy duty pain killers for many months.
The pain killers worked very well for the agonising pain in my spine but did
nothing for any R.A pain that I felt during flare ups!
I found that very interesting - why could these pain killers not touch R.A pain?
also, I query the wisdom of any woman not eating dairy products as I imagine
that the risks of developing Osteoporosis after the menapause, would be raised
considerably, due to low levels of calcium.
I have been diagnosed with Osteopeania, which just means that my bone density
is on the low side of normal.
I put this down to years of dieting during my twenties, thirties and forties because
I loved being thin.
But this whole topic about diet and R.A is great and I hope that others will relate
their experiences too.
Much love to all'
Fiona

RA is not just a case of joint aches and pains. It is a chronic, systemic disease of the immune system in which the joints get eaten away and destroyed.
Diet and homeopathy can play a big part in controlling your symptoms but the only way to prevent joint damage is to take the drugs.
Sorry to be so blunt Alison but the longer you put off taking the drugs,the greater the chance of joint damage.
I don't think there are any of us who haven't looked for some other way of controlling the RA, we are all afraid of taking the toxic drugs but the truth is that there is nothing else , if there was, the consultants would be offering it to us instead of the expensive drugs!

Doreen xx

I agree. My father-in-law died 3 years age. He had RA and refused all drugs except some anti-inflammatories and even then he kept stopping these to 'see if he really needed them'. He was really phobic about hospitals and wouldn't go in one. He ended up with hands so twisted he could barely feed himself and in pain everywhere. When I was diagnosed last year I had a mental picture of him in front of me. The drugs may be toxic but the disease is worse. I had no hesitation in starting mtx and will take anything they offer if it keeps the joint damage away.
Sue

Hi I have been to London to hear the top rummies speak Pfoff Denton Proff Dame carol Black also norwich pfoff Scott
All diet subuets come up .And they all say they have never found a diet that works or we would all be on it .

but there are 200 types of Athritis my friend has some sort of Athritis not atuo imumme diet works for her she has no pain while on it .

How ever when first got R.A I went on the no night shade diet a health person put me on it and it did not work .
having other auto imumme things i have been told if its auto iumme diet or homeopathy wont work .

so if its auto imumme don,t bother with diets or fad foods as they won,t do a thing .Just save your money
Christine

When I was diagnosed it was suggested to me that I look and see if anything sets off my RA. Spicy food and tomatoes can make my joints feel a tiny bit more puffy, but that seems to fade by the next day.

Wine can make my joints a bit achy (depends how I am overall) - and due to the meds I've already cut down my consumption of that!

My worst food? Anything pork. Anything at all that has come into contact with pork or pork fat and my joints *will* flare. And I get 4 days of mild to excruciating (well excruciating for me that is) pain.

So bye bye takeaways, sausage rolls, bacon sandwiches, cooked breakfasts, ham, pork, and those sausages with bacon you get at xmas! And hello new paranoia about food prep that I've never been worried about before.

Oddly enough no other meat that I've tried has the same effect. Strange!

Interesting. I hadn't considered wheat. Or more accurately - I hadn't been testing wheat! I shall have to see if it does benefit me or no. I'm still learning what is and isn't good for me and attempting to adapt accordingly!

I am taking my meds. Religiously. I may not like filling myself up with them - but... I prefer them to the alternative.

Hi everyone!
I have just looked at this thread again and think it's great
that people are still keeping it going!
I would just like to say that joint erosions and damage are not inevitable with R.A.
The way R.A effects an individual depends on the individual.
I was diagnosed 15 years ago and for the first few months was too afraid to take
anything but Paracetomol for the pain!
Finally, the lovely R.A nurse made a home visit to me and said that unless I
wanted to end up hobbling around like an eighty year old while still in my 30's I
should take the Hydroxychloriquine that my Rheumatologist had prescribed.
Even then I couldn't do it! (And believe me I was hobbling around!)
I eventually saw a very elderly and fatherly G.P who encouraged me to give it a try.
Somehow he gave me confidence and the next day I started taking them.
I am still on them today and I have no joint damage apart from a slight mark on a finger joint
under X ray.
But if I had been diagnosed today I believe that I would have maybe been put on far stronger
medication at the beginning.
I find that it is mainly my tendons that get inflamed during flare-ups.
I was told when I was first diagnosed that it is the first two years that are the most difficult
for the Rheumatologist as within that time they see by X ray how damaging an individuals R.A
is going to be i.e bone erosions and damage or not very much.
I had a 7 month remission of R.A symptoms last year but now it is flareing again.
I had broken a bone in my Spine and was in a lot of pain from that but the R.A switched off!
As the pain in my Spine got gradually better the R.A flared up again!
I am now back to stiffness in the mornings and after sitting down for too long!
I find it very difficult to hold my nerve when having a flare-up and to keep believing
that it will settle down again.
I do know from experience that certain Antibiotics have put me into remission before.
In fact I had taken two courses of Antibiotics just when the remission last year started and before I broke
the bone in my Spine.
I also find this cold weather horrible for R.A too!
As for diet I am a vegetarian who eats fish and dairy products and drinks red wine in the evening.
But I have tried being vegan and cutting out tea and coffee, and pre R.A was tea total.
I have never tried wheat and gluten free and found the posts on that very interesting.
Any posts on what people are trying out diet wise are really interesting so I hope this thread
keeps going.
Best wishes and good luck to everyone,
Fiona