Rheumatoid arthritis patients may be able to improve their symptoms by switching to a vegan and gluten-free diet, a study in Sweden has found.
Over a year Frostegård and his team followed 30 patients who kept up the new diet for at least three months and 28 on a normal diet, monitoring the progress of the disease and levels of various chemicals in the blood. By the end of the study the vegans had a modest improvement in the number of swollen joints (down from an average of 5.3 to 4.3). There was also a large drop in the level of a chemical in the blood called CRP, which doctors use to measure inflammatory activity in the body. There was no significant improvement in the group who ate a normal diet.
At the same time, the vegans developed a lower body mass index, had lower levels of bad cholesterol and higher levels of immune system factors that potentially inhibit the inflammatory reaction. The research was reported in the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy.
Frostegård conceded the study was too small to draw definitive conclusions and that it would need to be repeated. Convincing patients to switch diets for such a long time was very difficult, he said. “There is no big money from the drug companies for these kind of studies.”
Thought for the Day
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