Can a vegan diet treat rheumatoid arthritis?

I just lately realized about a examine suggesting a vegan diet is an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.

While that sounded intriguing, one other declare made in an interview about the study actually caught my consideration: the lead writer of the examine mentioned that physicians ought to encourage folks with rheumatoid arthritis to attempt altering their consuming patterns earlier than turning to remedy.

Before turning to remedy? Now wait simply a minute. That flies within the face of a long time of analysis convincingly demonstrating the significance of early remedy remedy of rheumatoid arthritis to forestall everlasting joint harm. An growing variety of efficient remedies can just do that.

In truth, there’s no convincing proof that modifications in diet can stop joint harm in rheumatoid arthritis. And that features this new examine.

So, what did this analysis discover? Let’s take a look.

A vegan diet for rheumatoid arthritis

Researchers enrolled 44 folks with rheumatoid arthritis within the examine. All have been ladies, principally white and extremely educated. They have been randomly assigned to one in all two teams for 16 weeks:

• Vegan diet. Participants adopted a vegan diet for 4 weeks, adopted by further meals restrictions that eradicated meals the researchers thought of to be frequent arthritis set off meals. These meals included gluten-containing grains (wheat, barley, and rye), white potatoes, candy potatoes, chocolate, citrus fruits, nuts, onions, tomatoes, apples, bananas, espresso, alcohol, and desk sugar. After week seven, these meals have been reintroduced, one at a time. Any reintroduced meals that appeared to trigger ache or different signs of rheumatoid arthritis was eradicated for the remainder of the 16-week interval.
• Usual diet plus placebo. These individuals adopted their ordinary diet and took a placebo capsule every day for 16 weeks. The capsule contained insignificant doses of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamin E.

After the primary 16 weeks, individuals took 4 weeks off, then the teams swapped dietary assignments for an extra 16 weeks.

What did the examine discover in regards to the vegan diet?

The vegan method appeared to assist reduce arthritis signs. Study individuals reported enchancment whereas on the vegan diet, however no enchancment through the placebo part.

For instance, the common variety of swollen joints fell from 7 to three.3 within the vegan diet group, however truly elevated (from 4.7 to five) within the placebo group. In addition, whereas on the vegan diet, individuals misplaced a median of 14 kilos, whereas these on the placebo gained almost 2 kilos.

What else do we have to think about?

While the findings sound nice, the examine had vital limitations:

• Size. Only 44 examine topics enrolled and solely 32 accomplished the examine. With such small numbers, it solely takes a few to change the outcomes. Larger research (with a number of hundred or extra individuals) are usually extra dependable.
• Lack of range. This trial didn’t embrace males and had principally white, extremely educated individuals.
• No commonplace analysis of rheumatoid arthritis. A doctor’s analysis was required, however there was no requirement that standard criteria be met.
• Study period. A remedy lasting 4 months could appear to be a very long time, however for a persistent illness like rheumatoid arthritis that may wax and wane by itself, that is too quick a time to make agency conclusions.
• Self-reported diet. We don’t know the way effectively examine topics caught to their assigned diets.
• Medication use. Study topics took arthritis medicines, although no data on particular medicine is obtainable. Some made dosage changes through the trial. While the researchers tried to account for this by way of a separate evaluation, the small variety of individuals might make that evaluation unreliable.
• Weight loss. Losing weight, fairly than consuming a vegan diet, might need contributed to symptom enchancment.
• No evaluation of joint harm. No x-rays, MRI outcomes, or different assessments of joint harm have been offered. That’s essential, as a result of we all know that folks with arthritis can really feel higher even when joint harm continues to worsen. Steroids and ibuprofen are good examples of remedies that cut back signs of rheumatoid arthritis with out defending the joints. Without details about joint harm, it’s inconceivable to evaluate the true profit or danger of counting on a vegan diet to treat rheumatoid arthritis.

Finally, it’s unclear how a vegan diet would enhance rheumatoid arthritis. This raises the likelihood that the findings gained’t maintain up.

Should everybody with rheumatoid arthritis turn into vegan?

No, there isn’t sufficient proof to justify recommending a vegan diet — or any restrictive diet — for everybody with rheumatoid arthritis.

That mentioned, a plant-rich diet is wholesome for almost everybody. As lengthy your diet is nutritionally balanced and palatable to you, I see little hurt in adopting an anti-inflammatory diet. But within the case of rheumatoid arthritis, diet must be mixed with remedyto forestall joint harm, not used as a substitute of it.