Rheumatoid arthritis treated with vegetarian diets

The notion that dietary factors may influence rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been a part of the folklore of the disease, but scientific support for thi s has been sparse. In a controlled, single-blind trial we tested the effect of fasting for 7-10 d, then consuming an individually adjusted, gluten-fre e, vegan diet for 3.5 mo, and then consuming an individually adjusted lacto vegetarian diet for 9 mo on patients with RA. For all clinical variables an d most laboratory variables measured, the 27 patients in the fasting and ve getarian diet groups improved significantly compared with the 26 patients i n the control group who followed their usual omnivorous diet throughout the study period. One year after the patients completed the trial, they were r eexamined. Compared with baseline, the improvements measured were significa ntly greater in the vegetarians who previously benefited from the diet (die t responders) than in diet nonresponders and omnivores. The beneficial effe ct could not be explained by patients' psychologic characteristics, antibod y activity against food antigens, or changes in concentrations of prostagla ndin and leukotriene precursors. However,the fecal flora differed significa ntly between samples collected at time points at which there was substantia l clinical improvement and time points at which there were no or only minor improvements. In summary, the results show that some patients with RA can benefit from a fasting period followed by a vegetarian diet. Thus, dietary treatment may be a valuable adjunct to the ordinary therapeutic armamentari um for RA.