Diet may slow the progression of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis

The Manchester Diet is unlikely to affect the progression of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. It emerges from an overview of existing scientific knowledge, now published in the specialist journal rmd open has appeared (DOI: 10.1136/rmdopen-2021-002167,

The European League Against Rheumatism (EULAR) in 2018 set up an international working group to examine the potential effects of diet, exercise, weight, alcohol, smoking, and work during illness and to develop appropriate recommendations for doctors and patients .

For dietary recommendations, the taskforce searched relevant systematic reviews of studies examining the effects of diet on pain, joint damage and physical function for seven common rheumatic and musculoskeletal disorders. These were osteoarthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, axial spondyloarthritis, psoriatic arthritis, systemic sclerosis and gout.

Overall, the researchers included 24 systematic reviews and 150 original research articles published between 2013 and 2018 in the analysis. Most of the studies included osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

For osteoarthritis, there were relatively few dietary studies, so the evidence for them was assessed as poor or very poor. An analysis of the collected data also showed that the effects of dietary interventions in osteoarthritis on disease progression were generally small and not clinically significant, according to the working group.

Researchers rated the evidence for most dietary interventions for rheumatoid arthritis as poor or very poor, mainly because of the small number of studies and participants. The group said there was modest evidence for probiotics, vitamin D and fish oil/omega-3, but the effects were either negligible or very small, making a big difference.

Therefore, based on current evidence, there is no single dietary intervention that has a significant benefit on outcomes for people with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, the authors conclude.

Health professionals may advise people with these conditions that eating certain foods is unlikely to affect the progression of their condition, but eating a healthy diet and maintaining a healthy weight are important for general health reasons, they write. hill/aerzteblatt.de