Can wheat inflame arthritis?

gande

I had the initial effects of arthritis about 2 years ago. It just came on out of the blue. Painful hips, knees and pain at night time. Otherwise quite fit and healthy 46 year old.

I met a celiac chap at a conference and during lunch he made a real fuss over whether the menu included gluten.

I asked him if it was such an issue and he said well, yes, three months in hospital. I then quizzed him about his general health otherwise and he said perfect. It seemed it.
Next week I am in america and their are these huge chinese blokes eating burgers, drinking beer and watching baseball. Three week later I am in Taipei, still chinese but they look like the celiac chap. Perfect weight and like the celiac chap less issues with arthritis / joint pain. The american chinese however did have issues.

It seems that the Taiwanese and Marcus (celiac) avoid wheat products and benefit health wise.

I tried this (giving up wheat) and touch wood it has made an incredible difference. All symptoms of pain have gone. I know that this isn't necessarily permanent but every little helps and I want to delay this as long as possible.

What are your views? Any tips?

Kittkat

Hello Gande
I definitely believe certain foods can have a big impact on the arthritis and it is great that you have had an improvement.

stickywicket

gande wrote:

I am in america and their are these huge chinese blokes eating burgers, drinking beer and watching baseball. Three week later I am in Taipei, still chinese but they look like the celiac chap. Perfect weight and like the celiac chap less issues with arthritis / joint pain. The american chinese however did have issues.

It seems that the Taiwanese and Marcus (celiac) avoid wheat products and benefit health wise.

It seems obvious that a gluten-free diet will benefit anyone who has coeliac disease. As to whether or not it will benefit anyone who doesn't, well that's another matter.

What we do know about arthritis is that being overweight makes things worse whatever the diet. It seems to me that the main 'arthritic' difference between your Taipei men and your American Chinese men is the burgers, beer and sedentary lifestyle of the latter.

I am puzzled as to how you can attribute your lack of pain to your lack of wheat 'I tried this (giving up wheat) and touch wood it has made an incredible difference. All symptoms of pain have gone.' when, in your previous post, you attributed the difference to lymphatic drainage.

What sort of arthritis do you have, please?

trepolpen

hi gande

as sticky said it will affect some people but not everyone , we are all different & other food do the same to some people ie: some fruits like oranges & grapes , & nightshade vegetables as well as dairy, wheat, gluten

if it helps one person , then that its great but its not the norm , pretty easy to find out what is making your arthritis worse & cutting it out , no need to try cutting out everything or everyone cutting out wheat & gluten

Boomer13

Hi;

The danger is that if we say inflammatory arthritis is made worse by wheat as a blanket-statement for all and suggest that giving up wheat will cause the same relief of symptoms for everyone, then people who have been diagnosed with autoimmune arthritis may decide they can "cure" themselves without DMARDS merely by eliminating wheat, or other element from their diet. Delaying treatment in the belief that they can treat themselves can lead to further irreversible joint damage and is quite dangerous to the person's future mobility. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disease, but not all autoimmunity is caused by wheat-intolerance.

That being said, I'm very glad you have had relief by eliminating wheat from your diet.

sailrib

This is very interesting...I've been coeliac (no wheat, gluten, barley, oats or rye) since 2006 but have had coalition and arthritis since 2009/2010. I feel it's made no different with me but that might be the timing of things.

chookgate

I was once told by a Doctor that gluten is harmless ... unless of course you are coeliac, or have a severe wheat allergy. He said the cause of a lot of people's symptoms is not the gluten, but the cheaply made shop bought extremely doughy bread with loads of additives.

applerose

I was diagnosed with RA about 4 years ago. About 2 years ago, I started getting symptoms which turned out to be a wheat intolerance. I gave up wheat about 1 and 1/2 years ago but it didn't make the RA any better at all. In fact, things are slightly worse.

What made you cut out only wheat and not all gluten? Hope it continues to work for you.

Mat48

I dropped wheat from my diet when my RA first kicked off. I was hoping that the RA symptoms would be relieved I suppose, but more importantly I needed to lose a lot of weight and wanted to have less for my weight bearing joints to cope with. I'm not sure whether or not it's helped my RA directly but losing weight certainly has.

I was reading up some more about peripheral neuropathy today in relation to my feet, calves and hands. A link flashed up between Coeliacs and Peripheral Neuropathy. I was very interested in this because my mother-in-law told me that her late husband had suffered from PN for years and had severe arthritis too. But what killed him in the end was chronic constipation - he was really very ill with this and he suffered terribly and he stopped eating towards the end. My sister-in-law used to tell him to cut out gluten but he was a typical man of his generation who loved his white bread so he never took her advice.

I've been pondering this all day because I've had severe IBS over the past 3 months - despite not having any wheat in my diet. I do eat a lot of oats, mostly the variety that describe themselves as gluten free - but I'm not actually sure they are. And I've also been eating little bits of wheat here and there when it was too embarrassing or tempting not to recently (homemade pizza at a dinner party the other night!) - and the neuropathy has worsened again a lot.

Not directly related to what you are asking but I thought it might be of interest to some anyhow. I may ask for a Coeliacs test when I next see my GP.

dreamdaisy

If it's helped you then that is a good thing, it won't work for everyone though because we are all different. Believe it or not many of us on here have done diets, supplements, bought magnets and copper insoles and, suprise surprise, we carry on with out arthritis un-tamed because ours is not so biddable or polite. DD

Mat48

There is a danger of people taking one person in their acquaintance and using their experience as an answer/ cure for all. This means that many of us get rather shirty and defensive about people coming up with one -method -of- relief- fits-all type solutions. I get pretty sick of people telling me not to take our horrible drugs and drink cider vinegar and take up tai chi too. :roll:

But I believe the person asking this question is really just asking about wheat intolerance as a possible trigger for some forms of arthritis rather than presenting gluten avoidance as a cure DD?

Coeliacs disease often goes unrecognised and people like my late father-in- law suffer many years of hell leading to a very painful death because his gluten intolerance was not picked up on by doctors. It is also an autoimmune illness so it may well have overlaps with autoimmune arthritis for some people. I'm having this tested for on Wednesday myself in case more strict avoidance helps me - which might in turn help my RA. Sometimes it pays to think holistically because many doctors don't and won't and this seems to strangle healthcare for chronic diseases for many of us. Mat

phoenixoxo

Hi gande,

Great news, that giving up wheat has helped you. It hasn't helped me, unfortunately, but I appreciate that everyone responds differently to everything! If I were in your position, I'd continue to enjoy not being in pain, but I'd keep checking in for regular blood tests, just to keep an eye on inflammation levels. Arthritis can be a sneaky sort of illness... :?

Best wishes,
Phee

dreamdaisy

Hello Mat, I think that maybe you haven't read the othe thread posted by this person? My thinking (for what it's worth) is that if one has an auto-immune arthritis then no matter what one does it will stil do what it can simply because it can. Diet? No. (Did that for years in my childhood and got precisely nowhere.) Lymphatic draining? No. Why bother? 'Cos you can flog the idea of a special mattress? Sports massage? Yes, but only for temporary relief which is something I do occasionally because temporary is the best I can get and my sports masseur knows exactly how to deal with my scars. This is my jaundiced view because no matter what I have have tried my arthritis monsters prevail.

Unlilke you I am seventeen years in with this rubbish and accept that I have arthritis. I knew from an early age that a lovely, healthy life was not to be my lot and I've been proved right. There should be some pleasure in that but, alas, there is not.

Mat48

No haven't read other post and I've made it very clear that I don't believe in cures anymore than you do. I've suffered all my life too - not with arthritis but other similar stuff to you I believe? I never did follow the chick weed with yoghourt cures or drop dairy or gluten properly in the old chronic eczema days but as I got older I did vaguely have a go - more for my kids's sake than my own because they had eczema and reflux and a whole host of conditions that still bother them greatly now they are off at uni.

None of it made the slightest difference - apart from no longer using oil paint for my work and our old cat dying - which both possibly just happened to coincide with disappearance of eczema and alopecia in exchange for RA. Or possibly were significant as I do react very badly to some chemicals and some cats.

Like you I'm cynical- but I do believe that many people can improve their health immeasurably by getting the right balance of hormones, vitamins and minerals and I do believe that Coeliacs can cause polyneuropathy and joint pain. Also I believe in autoimmune overlaps. This is not to say that by our diet we can cure arthritis but just that there can be a arthritic component to Ceoliac's disease and perhaps, for some, by cutting out gluten they can find peace and live normally again without horrible the IBS issues and maybe without joint pain too. It is very hard to cut out gluten properly and a bit of wheat intolerance is not the same thing as Coeliac 's of course.

ichabod6

The major blips in my life are rheumatoid arthritis and crohns disease.
I think I may be older than most who subscribe to this website.
I have never in my life followed a diet except to put sweeteners in
my tea instead of sugar (at the insistence of my bride) and put more salt
in my food (because of my crohns.)
Whatever you eat or dont eat, if it works for you, be happy and get
on with your life.

barbara12

Must say I have noticed quite a few on this forum with a wheat intolerance..it is interesting...