Quitting gluten & arthritis

nellooo

Hi everyone, I've seen a few other threads about arthritis and gluten on here but I wanted to share my recent experience and i'm keen to hear from others about whether quitting gluten has helped with RA flare ups and pain.

I've been on Agemvita for around 8 months. It made a difference soon after taking but then kind of plateaued at a level I would call unbearable. When I went for my 6 month check up I was feeling pretty desperate to change to a different biologic bc I was sure my meds weren't working well. But, to my surprise, the ultrasound and bloods showed that clinically i was doing "well". This was hard to swallow bc on a day to day basis I was still struggling with terrible fatigue, constant wrist pain and swollen wrists. At the time, the consultant said that the pain I was experiencing was probably 'pain syndrome' and prescribed me amitriptyline 10mg which made no difference at all. ANYWAY, a few weeks ago I stopped eating gluten (out of desperation and seeing things on the internet) and 4 or so days later the difference was huge. The fatigue and constant pain are 50-70% reduced. My wrists look normal for the first time in over a year...

I've always been sceptical about the power of diet for inflammation (and I got so fed up with random people giving me spurious food advice) and I also don't have gastro symptoms most associated with gluten intolerance. However, the change has been dramatic. Even as far as waking up in the morning and just not being immediately in pain.

When I went back to hosp consultant this week, they called my wrists a 'success story' but literally three weeks before I was feeling like i was about to jump off a cliff bc of wrist stiffness...

The idea of being GF is deeply unappealing to me. I'm still >3 weeks into a strict GF diet and haven't even tried eating out. I'm interested to hear anyone else's experience of the link between gluten and RA. My aunt has celiac disease but I contacted my gp and he said he said that i had been tested for CD in march and that was negative.

Anyway - am keen to hear if others have stories - either for or against eating gluten and its impact on RA. It's still possible my dramatic improvement is related to something else - or just a coincidence...

Thanks ☺️

jamieA

Hi @nellooo

Youi might want to read a few of the posts @Arthuritis has made over the last few months regarding change of diet helping inflammatory arthritis - like this one.

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/708228#Comment_708228

Also there's a good article here.

https://www.arthritis.org/health-wellness/about-arthritis/related-conditions/physical-effects/inflammatory-arthritis-and-gut-health

My daughter has coeliac disease and has a gluten free diet. She found it hard initially but over the last few years more and more supermarkets stock GF products and many restaurants cater for GF customers. It makes life more expensive though.

I'm also on Amgevita(adalimumab) and at my rheumatology consultation last year my consultant thought I might be building up antibodies to adalimumab. It is not that uncommon seemingly. They took a blood test which showed that wasn't the case and she thought it was a long but relatively mild flare I was going through.

Could you ask for a general steroid injection? Not one directly into a joint but the general one given in your rear end. I saw my consultant in September and she organised a general steroid injection for me as I was still suffering joint issues after a reaction to an MRI scan contrast agent I'd had in June. She explained that she believed the reaction had caused my pain and discomfort levels to rise and that the steroid injection was to effectively reset them. So far it's working.

Hope you get sorted soon.