ARTHRITIS
Arthritis, a painful bone and joint disease, affects millions of people. Major forms include osteoarthritis, the painful hardening of bones and joints in the hands or spine, which affects primarily older people, especially men. Rheumatoid arthritis, involving the inflammation and swelling of the joints, especially in the hands and feet, appears primarily in women aged 25 to 50. A balanced diet has benefited some people with arthritis. Excessive animal food and salt appear to be connected with osteoarthritis, while potatoes, tomatoes, and other nightshade plants have been associated with rheumatoid arthritis. See Fibromyalgia, Fish, Lupus, Nightshades, Sesame, Vegetarian Diet.
• Macrobiotic Approach - The macrobiotic approach to arthritis, including a classification of the different types of arthritis, dietary guidelines, home cares, and case histories, is included in several books devoted to this subject. Some arthritis is believed to be caused by strong animal food intake, especially chicken and eggs, while another type is associated with tropical fruits and vegetables, especially nightshades.
Source: Michio Kushi with Charles Millman, A Natural Approach to Arthritis (Tokyo and New York: Japan Publications, 1988) and Aveline Kushi, Cooking for Health—Arthritis (Japan Publications, 1988).
• Low-Fat Diet Relieves Rheumatoid Arthritis - Fat-free diets have produced complete remissions in six patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Doc- tors at Wayne State University in Detroit reported that when a low-calorie, low-fat diet in which chicken, cheese, safflower oil, beef, and coconut oil were eliminated, stiffness and swelling of joints disappeared within days. Patients remained symptom free for up to fourteen months, only to experience short-term recurrences within usually 24 to 48 hours of eating foods which were high in fat. “We conclude that dietary fats in amounts normally eaten in the American diet cause the inflammatory joint changes seen in rheumatoid arthritis.”
Source: Charles P. Lucas and Lawrence Power, “Dietary Fat Aggravates Active Rheumatoid Arthritis,” Department of Medicine, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan, 1989.
• High-Fat, High- Sucrose Diet Contributes to Arthritis - In laboratory experiments, rats fed a diet high in fat and sucrose developed abnormal stiffness, reduced energy, and other adverse morphological and structural changes.
Source: R. F. Zernicke, “Long-Term, High-Fat-Sucrose Diet Alters Rat Femoral Neck and Vertebral Morphoolgy, Bone Mineral Content, and Mechanical Properties,” Bone 16(1)25-31, 1995.
• Vegan Diet Helps Arthritis Patients - In a study of 43 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, researchers reported that those assigned to a vegan diet rich in lactobacilli had changes in fecal microbial flora associated with improvement in rheumatoid arthritis activity.
Source: R. Peltonen et al., “Faecal Microbial Flora and Disease Activity in Rheumatoid Arthritis During a Vegan Diet,” British Journal of Rheumatology 36(1):64-68, 1997.
• Arthritic Patients Improve on a Vegetarian Diet - In a case control study, rheumatoid arthritis patients assigned to a vegetarian diet had a significant decrease in platelet count, leukocyte count, calprotectin, total IgG, IgM rheumatoid factor, and other biochemical and immunological variables compared to those assigned to an omnivore diet. The researchers concluded that “dietary treatment can reduce the disease activity in some patients with rheumatoid arthritis.”
Source: J. Kjeldsen-Kragh, et al., “Changes in Laboratory Variables in Rheumatoid Arthritis Patients During a Trial of Fasting and One-Year Vegetarian Diet,” Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology 24(2):85-93, 1995.