Diet and arthur

Ladybrown

Hi all
A quick question for you all - I am sure that, like me, people helpfully offer you tips about changes to diet which help with arthritis/inflammation. I'm always a bit wary, especially as mine is OA not one of the inflammatory versions, but I was wondering whether anyone has actually had any success with dietary tweaks.

The latest suggestion came from a manager at work who was trying to pressure me into taking on some extra teaching cover this week (me, on crutches, "sorry, no. Flare up, working on willpower, frankly"). Manager decided to 'walk with me' to class to carry on discussion (me: "I'm sorry I have to use the lift...."), follows me into the lift and leads on to story of a friend who is a physio and a vegan and strongly recommends cutting out dairy to avoid inflammation. (Me - "I reckon my problem might be the lack of cartilage in my knee").

I'm going to need some strong evidence to give up cheese and my morning cup of builders'!!

So, anyone found any good changes that are worth trying....?

stickywicket

Briefly – no. http://tinyurl.com/z632ms6 So you can keep eating your cheese as long as you keep your weight down.

AC has some good info on diet. https://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/managing-arthritis/diet-and-exercise/diet

daffy2

Like so many others on here I sometimes get this sort of 'helpful' advice and usually say something along the lines of 'thank you for the suggestion, I'll look into it'.
I keep an open mind about the inter-action of diet and health, if only because the medics really don't have the answers as they haven't done the work,except in isolated cases for specific purposes(you only have to look at the catalogue of conflicting 'official' advice) and so much/most of what you come across is largely anecdotal, but there are two factors that come into 'cures'. One is coincidence - following a particular food strategy comes at the same time as an improvement in the underlying condition( possibly because of feeling capable of undertaking the change leading to a better coping state overall), another is that if a given individual has dietary issues( intolerances, deficiencies etc) but is unaware of them then a change of diet which corrects those problems(possibly unintentionally) may well lead to an improvement. For instance,removing allergens of whatever kind can make a big difference to an individual's state of health beyond the immediate alleviation of asthma, eczema or what ever. Doesn't make that regimen a 'cure', but within reason 'nothing venture, nothing gain'.

dreamdaisy

I know that eating pickles and drenching my chips in vinegar will exacerbate my OA but sometimes that's a price I am willing to pay. Dairy is a well-known source of inflammatory troubles, in my case an excess leads to a very runny nose and sometimes a patch of rash (which is eczema as opposed to psoriasis). My late Ma found that tomatoes set her OA off - and of course she loved tomatoes.

No dietary changes will affect the underlying cause of the trouble, in your case you're running out of cartilage and the damage is done. It may help to ease a little of the pain but to discover the foods that trigger your increase in pain is a long and (let's face it) tedious process. DD

theresak

I suspect that eating as healthily as one can is what most of us try to do most of the time. I have RA, and being on a biologic therapy have to avoid things like certain cheeses, pate, etc., but these wouldn`t apply to you. I believe tomatoes may trigger inflammation, so I don`t eat very many, even though we grow them.

Ladybrown

Thanks all. I admit I usually smile and say, thanks I'll look into that (much as Daffy does). I can't help feeling that restricting my diet beyond the 'healthy with occasional treats' model I follow at the moment would just make me miserable and, let's be honest, where Arthur is concerned misery loves company! I haven't noticed much in the way of patterns with food (except of course that weight-loss = happier knees and back) so I will carry on as before. I suppose people do want to help but if I followed all of them I don't think I'd be eating much at all
Onwards and upwards

pot80

The publication "Healthy eating and arthritis" from Arthritis Care is, I find, very good and answers what I need to know for my RA.

[Deleted User]

Here's a link to the section on Healthy eating and arthritis

The page also includes a link to the document Pots80 mentions above.

https://www.arthritiscare.org.uk/what-is-arthritis/resources/221-healthy-eating-and-arthritis

Best wishes
Mod B

Helenbothknees

Back before I had my knee replacements I read a book on this topic and decided to try it properly. I went on a diet where you give up almost everything, then gradually add in one new food every week or so. It took me several months altogether. Result: some foods seemed to make a miniscule amount of difference, but not enough to be worth the effort - or to reverse the fact that in my case I had virtually no cartilage left in my knees. That gave me the answer.

Bovey1

Hi Ladybrown. I have ankylosing spondylitis; there is research being done about how starch in the diet might affect people with AS, but I have not seen anything about diet and other forms of arthritis. Apart from osteoarthritis, other arthritises are due to an immune system going wrong, how does diet influence that? Just smile and thank people for their well meaning suggestions. Irritating isn't it.
Oh yes, tomatoes, eat the yellow ones, they don't have the ingredient that possibly flares joints.

PetiteN

Ladybrown wrote:

Hi all
A quick question for you all - I am sure that, like me, people helpfully offer you tips about changes to diet which help with arthritis/inflammation. I'm always a bit wary, especially as mine is OA not one of the inflammatory versions, but I was wondering whether anyone has actually had any success with dietary tweaks.

The latest suggestion came from a manager at work who was trying to pressure me into taking on some extra teaching cover this week (me, on crutches, "sorry, no. Flare up, working on willpower, frankly"). Manager decided to 'walk with me' to class to carry on discussion (me: "I'm sorry I have to use the lift...."), follows me into the lift and leads on to story of a friend who is a physio and a vegan and strongly recommends cutting out dairy to avoid inflammation. (Me - "I reckon my problem might be the lack of cartilage in my knee").

I'm going to need some strong evidence to give up cheese and my morning cup of builders'!!

So, anyone found any good changes that are worth trying....?

Hi there,

I've often been wary of people's suggestions over the years.
But I've read alot on how food intolerances particularly can affect pain and inflammation. And sugar, certainly in high levels is known for exacerbating inflammation, even when other factors are the root cause of inflammation and health problems.

I have to say though, for me, cutting out dairy, well lactose, has had an effect on both inflammation and pain levels (although I'm flaring now off all meds I know I could be even worse if I was still having lactose and gluten in my diet.

And I still have cheese, milk, cream etc ;-) I was pleasantly suprised and pleased to find lactofree dairy products, and good dairy free icecreams, even dairy free chocolate.
That's the good thing, I still have cuppas and cheese etc etc :-)

x