In 2015 as part of my Post Grad diploma in Nutrition at Massey University, I did a research project on rheumatoid arthritis and diet.
I will be doing a series of blog posts the outcome of this research.
Here is what the topic was called:
“An investigation into the use of a Palaeolithic diet by people with rheumatoid arthritis”
This was a qualitative study, interviewing 10 people with RA who had been on a paleo diet for at least 6 months, participants all attributed the paleo diet to reducing RA symptoms and disease markers like anti-bodies. The interviews set out to find out a number of things: firstly find out what motivated people to change to a paleo diet, what challenges they encountered changing to the diet and maintaining it, and how they managed those challenges. Secondly I asked them to describe the diet they consumed, and what they eat and don’t eat with respect to the perceived effect food has on RA symptoms.
A further part of the research project involved a review of studies where diet was used to treat rheumatoid arthritis. I was surprised at the number of studies and case studies documented, all up they give an interesting picture as to the effectiveness of diet for this disease. I’ll be giving an overview of some of these studies, and my perspective on them given the information I found out in the interviews.
Informative article on RA.
Thanks
Interesting. I was able to become pain free from RA by eliminating sugar from my diet. This was nearly 10 years ago so then people thought I was very weird. Perhaps JERF describes how I eat. I eat fruit as it doesn’t cause reaction. In recent years I have been more aware that l need to eat lots of greens. All easy to do when it means you can walk, cycle, Pilates and be an active Nana.
Did you also remove or reduce other foods like gluten or dairy?
Yes – sugar is something others have noticed as well. Thanks for sharing what worked for you.
I read an article on this where they said there is some kind of bacteria that also has a massive effect on us and that is also one of the reasons behind AR, is it true? if it is true then please guide me about it.
Yes – there are studies showing both gut and oral bacteria play a role