Subject: Re: Effect of diet on rheumatoid arthritis symptoms
Hi Alice I have been strictly wheat, corn free and try to avoid cow dairy (especially milk and cream) for 23 years. I describe my improvement / recovery as at least 75% better most of the time. I don't believe that diet is the be all and end all of arthritis treatment - as I strongly prescribe to the theories that infection (often minor & dormant) can also be a big factor too. They have also know for over 100 years that dental health (sugars / carbohydrate related) - is one of the factors in arthritis - gingivitis bacteria having a capability to bind to proteins and promote citrullination. > Rheumatoid Arthritis is an Autoimmune Disease Triggered by Proteus Urinary Tract Infection http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2270745/ In autoimmune disease proteins present in bacteria cross react create an immune response against our own tissues - and also interfere with how of bodies then react to food proteins. I am aware of the studies that you are mentioning here - I've always found the study here a bit non-scientific http://rheumatology.oxfordjournals.org/content/40/10/1175.full The comparison was a vegan diet without gluten compared to a normal diet with all food groups. There was no comparison to a normal diet without gluten! I am aware from other papers like this one - http://www.altmedrev.com/publications/3/2/90.pdf ...that eggs and some meats especially pork and beef are high up the list of foods that people with arthritis react to. So my view is that the vegan thing is a red herring. When you look further back at the history of medical practice in to dietary treatment of arthritis - it goes back a long way and showed some considerable success! 1944 John Turnbull - Study of one hundred and twenty-seven cases of arthritis (with notes on gastro-intestinal features) Unfortunately its pay for view but the summary tells the main story - http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF03011637 This followed on from work he did in 1924 - almost 100 years ago! Turnbull, John A. (1924) The relation of anaphylactic disturbances to arthritis. Turnbull, John A. (1924) Food allergens in connection with arthritis. The second of these papers is truly fascinating as he identified that people food intolerance and arthritic reactions changed over time - he kicks of the paper saying "It has been known for a long time (before 1924!) that in some individuals certain foods...." Turnbull identified allergens by the cutaneous method - Skin prick testing similar to those used today. Wheat, corn, pork get a mention.. what I find charming is the statement about one of his patients now being able to "hold her hat on whilst driving" :) http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM192409041911003 Turnbull's work is cited in papers in more recent years too - leading to work by Seignalet, Dr. John Mansfield (once briefly my Doctor), Dr. Gail Darlington (I had a conversation with her last year). Lastly - .. if you are truly wanting to study the causes of autoimmune diseases you should look at papers and lectures on YouTube by Alessio Fasano - Professor of Gastroenterology at University of Maryland - then this completes the picture as to why we develop food allergies and how we develop autoimmune reactions to bacterial and food proteins. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wha30RSxE6w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VvfTV57iPUY No one food causes arthritis - but proteins in almost any food can either create an immune response either independently - or by homology (similarity) to bacterial proteins to which the immune system are reacting to. So we only react to foods where larger undigested proteins have leaked through our gut - and this is likely to have a genetic link based on protein sequences. Best of luck! There's lots of good information to get you teeth in to out there.
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