Rheumatoid arthritis - the “perfect” diet?

[Paddyhhhj]

Hello, i was diagnosed with RA about three months ago. I have “failed” methotrexate and hydroxychloroquine and am due to see my rheumatologist again to be put on something else. I am hoping to perhaps try a biologic? But I find medication tricky always.

Anyway, in the meantime, I’m trying all I can do to help myself with lifestyle.

What is the so-called “perfect” diet to help control RA symptoms? Did anyone find a diet that helps?

I don’t eat gluten because I’m coeliac anyway. And I eat 95% UPF-free. But I do eat a lot of dairy (vegetarian) and I do eat a lot of chocolate (fairly healthy, UPF-free).

Anyway, please do give me some tips!

What about exercise? I find strength training utterly exhausting right now. Like, bone tiring.

Sigh. You are a political troll, as I had feared. I won’t respond further.

They do move to biologics much faster than they used to but the NHS pathway is still to exhaust cheaper options first.

I’m seronegative - as I think 20-30% are. I was also fobbed off for about a year and a half. Doctors rolled their eyes when I told them I thought it was RA!

I think when people appear “well”, they don’t get taken seriously more often than they should.

I've had RA for 22 years and fibromyalgia for three years. My illness is progressing again.
At the start I was 871 reading (6 is normal) wheelchair bound and shocked to be so disabled at 37.
I then had 20 years of reasonable health but steroids made me put on a stone a month. They were marvellous!
No diet has ever helped with the pain and mobility. I've tried them all.
I do not drink for family reasons ( the pain goes then!) and I've lost over six stone. I'm a fish eater.
I've just had my third rituximab ( modified infusion chemotherapy) and it's failed. I've had to retire and downsize. They have something new for me to try in June. I'll take anything to stop the pain except wacky which is not for me.
I live a half life so don't let them fob you off. Monitor everything because there's no cure yet.

As far as I know, there is not any perfect diet for RA. Some of the people usually take plenty of oily fish (rich source of Omega-3). Others rely on olive oil or nuts or vegetables.

As far as my experience goes the real benefit of diet is using it to keep your weight down, especially if a RA flare makes exercise harder. I could never face cutting out something like potatoes or chocolate, living with RA is hard enough without banning yourself from anything nice!

Just an update @Paddyhhhj . I've been on Filgotinib for three weeks and it's working. I can get up and downstairs.

I am currently on biologics but before that the things that made my RA worse were potatoes and bread. And some pasta.

The best things to help were spicy lentils (like soup or curry) with a good dose of turmeric included (ideally fry the turmeric in oil).

It helped to the extent that I lost 40kgs the first year, and 4 years later I'm down 96kgs, and just inside the healthy BMI range for the first time since the late 1980s.

My blood pressure has gone from being dangerously high and treated with 2 different medications to an average of 100/64 without drugs. HbA1c down from 90mmol/mol to 31mmol/mol. My circadian rhythm has gone from lying awake till dawn and sleeping to mid afternoon to falling asleep at 11 and waking refreshed at 7.30.

The diabetes consultant was blown away when I turned up a year later weighing 40kgs less than the year before. I suspect I was one of his "heartsink patients" he'd tried everything to get my HbA1c down and help me lose weight and nothing worked, so I was yet another morbidly obese patient rolling inexorably down the slope towards blindness and foot amputation. Having me turn up and be all evangelical about fermented foods and the gut microbiome fascinated him and he spent most of the appointment asking questions about what fermented foods I was eating, and how long I was fasting each night. He said that although his BMI was still within the healthy range he had developed a pot belly and nothing he'd tried had managed to improve it.

When I came back for my next annual appointment he beamed at me and patted his now flat stomach, very eager to show me that kimchi, kombucha, kefir and sauerkraut and a 14hr overnight fast had managed to reset his metabolism and got rid of the dangerous visceral fat that he'd been unable to shift with the diet and exercise changes that used to work until he hit middle age. He said he'd been telling all his patients, and talking about it with the dietitian at the diabetes clinic who had approved.

Infuriatingly, despite having lost a bit more than 15 stone I still can't walk, only hobble painfully leaning on two sticks. The joints are all fine, the sand fairy hasn't visited once, but the muscles and tendons in my right leg were a bit damaged by the weird way I dragged myself around when all the joints were grinding and aching. So now I can't lift or bend the right leg, can't pick things off the floor can't get in and out of chairs unless they have arm rests to heave myself up and lower myself down using my arms.

The physiotherapist said she thought it was lupus myositis and tendonits, I had to wait 10 months for the next available rheumatologist appointment. Sadly it was a new doctor who hadn't seen me before and hadn't read my notes. She rolled her eyes when I asked if lupus could be responsible for my leg refusing to heal. In a long suffering and irritated tone she asked "Who told you that?" and when I said it was the physiotherapist she rolled her eyes again and printed off some blood test forms, shoved them at me and stood to usher me out. I did the blood tests in January, and have heard nothing since.