Nutrition and Arthritis

[rubeuk]

I've heard that there are certain food groups which should be avoided
for arthritis sufferers.
Does anyone know which foods groups these are?

[Dave]

Here is some information that may be of help:
In one study of diet revision, 33 of 45 patients with rheumatoid
arthritis improved significantly on a hypoallergenic diet. The authors
concluded: "Increasing numbers of scientific studies suggest that
dietary manipulation may help at least some rheumatoid patients and
perhaps the greatest need now is for more careful and well-designed
research so that preconceptions may be put aside and role of diet, as a
specific or even a non-specific adjunctive therapy, may be determined."

In a review article, Darlington and Ramsey suggest that there are now
enough good studies that show that diet therapy in some cases may
improve symptoms and possibly halt the progression of arthritis. They
review both supplementation and food elimination approaches. They
suggested that diet therapy should begin with elimination of all foods
which might be causing symptoms, followed by single food
re-introductions to discover which foods reproduce symptoms. They list
corn, wheat, cow's milk, pork, oranges, oats, rye, eggs, beef, coffee,
malt, cheese, grapefruit, lemon, tomato, peanuts, and soya as the foods
most likely to cause arthritis.

Appelboom et al reported benefit from the exclusion of dairy products
in patients with ankylosing spondylitis and related
spondyloarthropathies; 18 of 25 patients complied with 6 weeks of dairy
exclusion - 13 had major improvement and 8 of these discontinued NSAID
use; another 4 had moderate improvement.

Food Proteins Cause Arthritis

The frequent occurrence of arthritis in patients with digestive tract
disease is a major clue. About 20% of patients with regional enteritis
and 10% with ulcerative colitis develop inflammatory arthritis.
Intestinal bypass for obesity leads to polyarthritis in 20 % of
patients and is associated with other features of "autoimmune" disease.
Another clue is that people with celiac disease who continue to eat
gluten-containing foods such as bread, pasta, cakes and cookies develop
rheumatoid arthritis. Another clue is an animal model of rheumatoid
arthritis in rabbits who develop typical joint lesions when they are
fed cow's milk.

A wheat gluten mechanism has been studied in rheumatoid arthritis
patients. The clinical observation is that wheat ingestion is followed
within hours by increased joint swelling and pain. Little and his
colleagues studied the mechanism, as it developed sequentially
following gluten ingestion.

Dave,
www.vital-life-supplements.com