No Specific Diet To Stop Progression Of Osteoarthritis, Rheumatoid Arthritis: Just Eat Healthy

Experts say that it is unlikely that a healthy diet would have any kind of positive influence in the progression of diseases like osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.

A healthy diet is said to have multiple benefits on both our physical and mental health. A well-maintained diet is known to lower the risks of heart diseases, diabetes, some cancers, boost overall immunity, help in better digestion, etc. But researchers say that it is unlikely that diet would have any kind of influence in the progression of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. The reasons behind this is quite unclear at this point.

What Do Experts Say?

To find out the truth behind this, researchers searched for relevant systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials or observational studies and pooled data analyses to look at the impact of dietary components or dietary supplements on pain, joint damage and physical function for seven rheumatic and musculoskeletal conditions. They conducted this study taking the most common arthritic conditions like:

Osteoarthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Systemic lupus erythematosus
Axial spondyloarthritis
Psoriatic arthritis
Systemic sclerosis
Gout

This study featured a wide range of dietary compounds and supplements like:

Conclusions Of The Study

The magnitude of impact on disease progression was found out to be very low and not clinically meaningful for diets that contain foods like fish oil, chondroitin, glucosamine, vitamin D, avocado and soybean. The evidence for most dietary interventions especially for rheumatoid arthritis was graded as worse than poor. There was, however, some positive impact evidence for probiotics, vitamin D and fish oil. However, researchers did not think it essential to acknowledge this because its effect was negligible.

The results of the study on most diseases came out as poor or very poor or as no positive outcome at all. Experts stated, "Based on the current evidence, there is no single dietary intervention which has substantial benefits on the outcomes of people with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis." In addition to these, experts said that there aren't enough high-quality dietary studies on this subject.

What You Can Take Away From This?

While diet is not making much of a difference for people suffering from these conditions, health experts strongly advised everyone to make sure they eat healthily and not put on too much weight. Having no outcome because of diet is better than having negative outcome. Gaining weight will never have positive impacts on arthritis.

However, there is one positive take away from this study. Health professionals say that consuming specific dietary components is unlikely to influence the progression of the disease. So, a good diet and healthy weight should be maintained for general health reasons at all times.