Vegan diet and RA

[Sierra]

From WebMD:

March 21, 2008 — “Gluten-free” vegan diets aren't just for health-food nuts. New research from Sweden shows that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who skip both animal products and certain grains could reduce their risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

RA is a chronic inflammatory disease that is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and atherosclerosis — the buildup of plaque in the arteries that can lead to heart attack and stroke. Sticking to a gluten-free vegan diet lowers the most damaging forms of artery-clogging cholesterol and increases levels of antibodies that may be protective against the inflammation that contributes to both RA and heart disease, researchers report in the March 18 issue of Arthritis Research & Therapy.

To discover the effects of a vegan, gluten-free diet on RA and its heart disease risks, Johan Frostegard and his colleagues at Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden randomly assigned 66 patients (average age, 50) with RA to a vegan diet, gluten-free diet, or a well-balanced diet for one year. The vegan diet contained vegetables, nuts, fruits, buckwheat, millet, corn, rice, sunflower seeds, and sesame milk. The well-balanced diet incorporated a variety of foods from every food group.

The researchers checked participants' blood samples at three and 12 months. They found that people who followed the vegan, gluten-free diet showed improvement in several markers of heart disease.

[Susan LymeRA]

A vegan diet was the first thing I tried after receiving my RA diagnosis and it reduced my pain and inflamation by 50%.  It was incredible and remains to this day the most obvious treatment impact. 

[whaleharbor]

This definitely works for me…it's just hard to keep up…

I was a vegetarian for about 5 years during which I went into remission …coincidence?  Who knows.

Sometimes when my flares have been really bad, I have fasted for a day and/or converted to a vegan diet even for a few days and the flare lessens significantly. 

Here's another article I just found with more of a hypothesis of why food elimination diets work for some. 

I need to get back to a more veg diet…I guess…it's no fun though. I love icecream!

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_2002_May/ai_85131563

— whaleharbor

Minocycline 100mg every other day with food...lots of food: Zydus brand. Celecoxib 200mg twice per day: Greenstone brand.

[Sierra]

There are some amazing soy ice creams out there now–there's a mango sorbet/vanilla soy cream blend I get at Trader Joes that rivals premium ice creams.

I like the idea of a vegan diet and own an amazing cookbook called “Vegan with a Vengeance” (really good, easy tempeh “bacon” recipe in there) but occasionally feel the need to eat  fish and poultry, so I do.

Changing the diet is quite an interesting journey. I'm just coming out of a period of eating lots of dairy (and have a sinus infection and joint pain to show for it). Each time I go on a “bender” and suffer the consequences I feel I'm a little less likely to do it again.

Sierra

[Maz]

[user=128]Sierra[/user] wrote:

From WebMD:

March 21, 2008 — “Gluten-free” vegan diets aren't just for health-food nuts. New research from Sweden shows that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients who skip both animal products and certain grains could reduce their risk of having a heart attack or stroke.

RA is a chronic inflammatory disease that is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and atherosclerosis — the buildup of plaque in the arteries that can lead to heart attack and stroke.

 

Hi Sierra,

I was fascinated by Dr S's chat the other night on rheumaticsupport.net. He commented that Harvard did some studies on arterial plaques and found chlamydiae pneumoniae pockets that were likely causing the initial inflammation that creates plaque formation. He then said that minocycline was the drug of choice for reducing artherosclerosis as it was found to have beneficial impact on both inflammation and pathogens. I found that pretty interesting….Amy Proal also has some great articles on heart disease on her bacteriality website.

Would be really interesting to know the mechanism of how the vegan diet provides such beneficial effects on inflammation. Perhaps also why proteolytic digestive enzymes also help with inflammation and are said to break down plaque formation and 'thin' the blood?

Thanks for sharing this interesting info.:)

Peace, Maz  

 

[JenTX]

I've heard great things about a raw food diet.  I have since started trying to incorporate more raw foods into my diet.  It's only been a week, and I can't tell anything yet.  But I actually went gluten-free a few months ago and noticed a big difference.  I also find it hard to do that, I have to keep reminding myself of the possible consequences of my RA, and it helps.

Jennifer

[Sierra]

For me, the key to being comfortably gluten free was learning about the alternatives I could use. My morning Van's waffles are an important staple.

I've also explored the wonderful world of raw foods and have enjoyed several raw food restaurant meals. Trying to make my own dishes (other than the obviously simple) hasn't gone so well. I grow my own sunflower and mung bean sprouts and have an awesome blended green drink recipe that I love (The Dr. Oz drink).

Sierra

[Author]

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