Food advise

lindamay

I am due for another x ray in July and do feel the arthritis in my hip is getting worse. We have just been to the Lincolnshire Show. There are so many stalls selling creams and different alternative therapies, some very expensive. How do I know if any might work? Are any worth trying? Someone told me a doctor advised them that flax seed oil capsules can help. Is any of this true? I also now avoid tomatoes as I have been told these aggrevate it. Could citrus fruits also have the same effect? So many things run through my mind. Do other members have any foodie advise? Thank you

[Deleted User]

Welcome to the forum Lyndamay, I am sure you will find plenty of help & support for your questions.

I am one of the moderation team, we all have one or more arthritis conditions or look after family with the same. If you need help with the technicalities of the forum please just get in touch via a personal message.

I look forward to reading your posts on the forum.

Mod B

helpline_team

Dear Lindamay,

Thank you for your post to Helplines. I'm sorry for the delay in replying, but there was a high volume of enquiries today and our service was closed for training on Friday.

I'm afraid that many supplements for arthritis don't have a very powerful effect - and for most people the benefits of exploring self management options outweigh the mild effects of supplements. The effect of healthy eating and losing weight where necessary and doing plenty of gentle exercise can be really of benefit to people, but may take some time.

On the healthy eating front a balanced diet including the fish oil omega 3 is thought to be positive, but more as a preventative to the degeneration joints. The vegetable version of omega 3 (example flax seed oil) does not seem to produce the same strength of benefit however.

Avoiding citrus fruit and tomatoes is not recommended by the medical world - unless you have a particular dietary intolerance of them. We realise that there are many confusing articles about diet and arthritis, so I hope you don't mind me setting the record straight.

Would you like us to send you some of our information about managing arthritis?
If so do please send your name and address to helplines@arthritiscare.org.uk

I hope we can help further

best wishes

Guy

Slosh

Just wanted to say there is a series starting on C4 tonight looking into so called "super foods" and the evidence for this. There was also an interesting article in the Guardian last weekend on the same theme of all the food/wellness advice and blogs. I had heard about the case of the Australian woman who had claimed to have cured her own cancer, she never had it, by diet alone but didn't realise that while dieticians, e.g. nhs ones are qualified, anyone can set up as a nutrionist/naturopath. Thre is also concern about the number of people who stop eating gluten without being properly tested for celiac disease (actually quite rare) and so are depriving themselves of an important protein and food group.
I was once advised to have 2 teaspoons of Olive oil a day. When I checked the research you needed 2 and 1/2 tablespoons a day and so it was not advised as not only did it add 400 calories a day to your intake but also caused skin and digestive problems. I would always recommend seeing a properly qualified dietician and asking your GP for allergy tests if you think you are allergic to anything.