Anyone following an anti-inflammatory diet? Anyone want to start? I am about to.

[Pavlovthecat]

The first thing I need to do is get a comprehensive list of foods that increase inflammation

and then a list of food that reduces inflammation

Anyone heard of the anti-inflammatory food triangle? I will post a link, talks about what foods, how often and I am hugely impressed to see red wine in it

I am so sick of pain. I am so sick of not controlling it with medication. It is time I took control. Anyone want to join me or share some experiences of how they are getting on with it? what do I need to know about it in advance?

I will be charting it's successes and failures for me on my blog too so if you want your name in there I will do that too!

Hi Pavlov

I've heard about this type of diet, but have no experience personally. I'm eating a diet devised by Patrick Holford, called Zest for Life. I feel hugely better for it. Been on it since January.

I'd be interested to hear more.... Can I ask why you feel the anti inflammatory would be good thing to follow for you?

(I suffer from IBS - had it for over 20 years)

Did you see the first episode of,The Food Hospital on c4 the other week? A woman with RA followed it for 7 weeks and there was a marked improvement.
Good luck!

I am interested in this as have mild RA and want to improve it without drugs.. I have read up on some books on it - and the alkaline diet.. so would be interested in your research and to see how it goes. am currently trying to low carb which should be OK.. so yes count me in!

Did you see the first episode of,The Food Hospital on c4 the other week? A woman with RA followed it for 7 weeks and there was a marked improvement.

I saw that episode. NRAS were not impressed with the 'facts' they put across on the programme. I read about that woman and although her bloods were slighltly improved, it wasn't as great as they made out. Also, at the time of filming, she'd not yet had any improvement in her symptoms. It was very misleading.

thanks everyone for your replies.

coco no I have not seen it, I will go see if I can find it and watch it today.

blue2 - I have lumbar disc problems, senios physio and spinal team think pain is substantially 'chemical pain' which is my body producing inflammatory chemicals in response to a tear in the disc, something like that. Also, due to whatever is going on, I continually have 'flare-ups' which cause muscles to spasm and sciatic nerve to inflame, it is happening so often now although not to such a huge degree (ie completely layed up in bed) but still causing significant pain. I think to some extent my muscles have not got rid of the all inflammatory chemicals they have produced, as there is inflammation there most of the time. I have also been reading about the links between long term chronic inflammatory conditions and depression (thanks puddle for pointing me in that direction) - i have never suffered from depression in my life and I now am slowly coming to terms with the fact I may be suffering from depression - now it may be that is because I am in mostly constant pain, and the life changing stuff that has happened since my back became problematic, but it might, or might not be made worse by continuous inflammation, won't talk on here about how/why that might be, as it is quite complex it seems but makes a lot of sense.

crashdoll I am certainly not expecting this to change my life for the positive completely, I am no longer searching for a miracle cure (well, that is not true, but I doubt this is it!), and I do think it is difficult in 5 wks to track the success of a diet on health conditions. I am under no illusions about this. But certainly I cannot think it will hurt me, and the anti-inflammatory foods are food sources that have been proven to be good for our diet anyway so it can only help me. DH is concerned as I have gone off food, probably to do with medication I am on, most food seems gloopy and stodgy and fatty and unappealing. So if it helps me eat, that on its own will be beneficial.

zzmum interested in the alkaline diet, will go take a look at that too. And the Zest for Life one blue talked about.

ted thank you for your very informative post, I have read some of things you posted on another thread and found it interesting. And I agree about it becoming a way of life rather than a diet. I think when I talk about it in terms of diet I was thinking about 'this is my daily diet', rather than 'going on a diet' as it is not a weight loss program or something for a short term, this will need to be a permanent change to how I life my life. But, it if works, that can only be a good thing. I have previously read about melatonin but not enough to know if it is good to take. Will do some more research.

Thanks everyone. I will link the anti-inflammatory food diet later.

oh I just saw you linked the programme ted thank you! and 7wks not 5 in my earlier post.

Pavlov
I feel hugely better eating stuff that Zest for Life recommends... Its low GL stuff - unrefined carbs, no sugar (a little Xylitol now and again), no caffeine, lots of veg, certain types of fruit, and meat and fish, nuts and seeds.

It keeps my blood sugar stable, so no cravings - but not sure about how anti inflammatory it is....

Its been devised by Patrick Holford who has written a number of nutrition books and how what you eat affects your health.

tedhuntchinson They used artistic licence with that one. The lady did not have any symptom improvement at the time of filming. They claimed dropping ESR the amount that it did to be 'marked'. My experience of raised inflammatory markers and various medical professionals a.) ESR is not the only indication of inflammation b.) is notoriously inaccurate and b.) a marked improvement in ESR is a jump of 20 points.

None of the rheumatology specialists I've ever seen have advocated the diet. They've always said, make good changes but don't cut out whole food groups.

Pavlov Sorry, I wasn't trying to rain on your parade. I do think a good diet goes a long way. That's hypocritical coming from me as my diet is terrible atm! I definitley do not think it can harm you, just not sure if it will necessarily be helpful but quite frankly, if I'm wrong and you feel better then it doesn't matter as long as you feel better. Making good positive changes to your diet is a good way forward but I've read some books advising crazy ways of doing the anti-inflammatory diet and I am not a fan of that.

I was treated in my twenties for juvenile chronic arthritis (Still's Disease) by an acupuncturist. He did manage to cure me. He thought it was 60% acupuncture, 20% Chinese Herbal Medicine and 20% diet.

Before I went to him, I did try an anti arthritis diet. From what I remember you had to cut out artificial sugars, non temperature fruit (especially oranges and tomatoes) wheat and no alcohol. It definitely did make a difference.

In my experience hospital doctors are not interested in cures, but in treating the symptoms of the disease and in my case making them worse. Once I decided that they were useless I took matters into my own hands. My best friend also had an inflammatory illness. For various reasons she was unable or unwilling to access alternative treatments and she is still ill to this day.

Watching with interest.

tedhutchinson Many people go into clinical remission on medication and thus, have symptom relief whilst eating the food you say is no good. I have not yet found the right combination of drugs. I'm not only just "having symptoms", the disease is active. I go through periods of relatively few symptoms but the scans are the proof - I have constant clinical synovitis. Food will not 'cure' my dysfunctional immune system but if evidence comes to light that will food is the cure, I'd change my diet in a heartbeat. Until then, I continue to try a combination of therapies including some alternative. I have spent a lot of money on various 'treatments' that claim to be able to help and have invested a lot of time and hope into it, so forgive me if if I'm not jumping for joy at your link when there is no firm evidence with regards to diet and RA.

I have spoken to many people who had no improvement on the anti-inflam diet, how do you answer that one? I trust the medical profession. They have no reason to lie to me. A dietary cure is also far cheaper for the NHS than the medication I am on and the check ups I need as a result.

I have had a look at Dr Weils' anti-inflammatory food triangle and it seems that there is a lot of food that I would like to be eating more of there anyway.

To start with, I think, rather than cutting certain food out immediately and then missing an entire food source, not to mention the chaos of family eating that is going to ensue (I am already deemed as fussy anyway as I don't eat red meat and don't like some food), I will add some of the anti-inflammatory food to my diet in the first instance, such as tofu, dark skinned fruit, soya products, nuts and oils, fish and other Omega 3 rich food. This won't be difficult, and then as I get used to it, I can reduce some of the pro-inflammatory food such as dairy and wheat.

My aim is not really to stop pain medication, I think I am starting to realise this is not realistic for now anyway, but maybe to be able to reduce the dosage of medication I am on in the future. A lot of my pain is nerve pain and I am starting to understand that there is not an awful lot that can help nerve pain apart from nerve blocking medication or injections. But, if I can reduce the muscle and nerve inflammation I stand a chance of cutting down other drugs in the future, and it I feel healthier generally I will be able to cope with the pain more easily, that is my theory, change the things I can, and be in a better place to manage the things I can't.

anyway I am going to plug my blog here. there is not much on it yet, but feel free to come back as I progress and add any comments you think might be useful wine cant cure back pain

Once I have the list of things I need to eventually cut out or at least cut down on, I will post back here. It is not starting today though as I have had 3 coffees already, with milk in, and some white bread toast! a complete fail!

Pavlov - sorry to hear that you are in so much pain - I totally understand your need to be able to control the pain by your own actions and so I wish you well with your plans - look forward to reading your blog - do you have any links to it..

I am also interested to do the same with my RA but I am yet to be convinced by the evidence - it all seems very anecdotal (if I read one more person telling the world they cured RA by giving up nightshade vegetables...) - maybe some people just have allergic reactions to certain foods and so they are easier to cure but it does not seem to address the true underlying cause and as Crashdoll has so clearly state, if it could be cured by diet, NHS would be putting Omegas on prescription rather than the very expensuve drugs currently being prescribed.

But one thing I do find is that taking control, eating better and looking after myself are good for my soul, makes me feel better and I deal with the RA pain better so that is only for me a good thing rather than feel chained down to a strict meds regime..

Are you looking to other approaches for pain control - I had great success with acupuncture..

I am reading all the links on this document and am going to work out a plan for next month to see if I do indeed respond to it .. nothing to lose from what I can see - except some weight due to better eating!

Good luck!

zzmum if I give up the nightshade vegetables, I will surely stop the will to eat. My diet is made up mostly of pasta, bread, tomatoes, peppers, caffeine, wine...maybe that is the problem

blog link is just below you highlighted in pink. It is a working progress for now.

zzmum and yes am definitely interested in all areas to help me gain control of my pain, diet, alternative medicine, meditation (am trying to get motivated for that one). I have tried acupuncture but only for 3 sessions and it did not work, the osteo did not offer more, just said 'does not work for some people' but my senior physio in the spinal pathway said the pain clinic will offer this again if i ever get there

I forgot all about this thread! And my blog has been slack with blogging my diet! But, I have started taking berrocca and vits aced to deal with fatigue which is long term prob now. Also white bread has been a big prob didn't realise how tired it makes me.

I have actually had some issues with eating in that sine if my pain meds have suppressed my appetite so my anti inflammatory diet has been blown completely! But on the up again and do find eat 'clean foods' like fruit, veg, fish, and reducing white bread, stodgy generally makes me feel better in myself.