Rheumatology 1999; 38: 1039-1044
© 1999 British Society for Rheumatology
Editorials |
Diet therapy for the patient with rheumatoid arthritis?
Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, The National Hospital, Oslo, Norway
Correspondence to:
M. Haugen, Centre for Rheumatic Diseases, The National Hospital, Akersbakken 27, 0172 Oslo, Norway.
In spite of the great advances that have been made in the development of new drugs for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA), many patients are interested in alternative treatments like dietary therapy. Although relatively few studies have been carried out on the possible impact of dietary therapy on disease activity in RA, interest in this matter is growing as our understanding of disease pathology and the effect of nutrients on immunity and inflammation increases.
Most clinical dietary therapy studies undertaken so far have focused on some form of dietary elimination. Scandinavian health farms have long promoted fasting and vegetarian diets for patients with rheumatic diseases.
In 1979 and 1983, Sköldstam et al. [1, 2] carried out two studies to verify whether diet therapy could alleviate disease activity and symptoms in patients with RA. In one study, 16 RA patients fasted for 7–10 days and followed a
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