Vegan diet combats rheumatoid arthritis

Eating a vegan diet can help rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sufferers reduce pain and swelling.

The diet can halve the number of joints swollen by the condition, and reduces the level of pain, say researchers with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.

Sufferers started to see improvements after just four weeks on the diet, and doctors were also seeing a reduction in levels of C-reactive protein, which indicates the amount of inflammation in the body.

The researchers tested the diet on a group of 44 rheumatoid arthritis patients who either ate vegan food without any restrictions on calories for four weeks or a standard diet for 16 weeks, before swapping with each other.

During the vegan phase, the number of swollen joints fell from an average of seven to just 3.3, while the level of pain, measured by the Disease Activity Score, decreased by two points compared to the 0.3-point reduction recorded by those on the more standard diet.

As a bonus, the participants lost weight and saw their cholesterol levels fall while they were on the vegan diet.

(Source: American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine, 2022; doi.org/10.1177/15598276221081819)

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