Do any of you find certain foods cause flare-ups or make symptoms worse in general? I find that dairy, gluten, soy, and most refined sugars make feel absolutely terrible. I don't have an allergy to any of these, but every time I eat something with one of these ingredients (gluten even trace amounts despite all blood tests for it showing normal), I always experience a flare-up. I become extremely fatigued, my joints ache, I have a lot of nerve pain, and often get a stomach ache, among many other symptoms that I get during my flare-ups. Could this reaction potentially be an autoimmune thing? A sign of an inflammatory response?
I have also been wondering about joint pain and a potential connection to autoimmune disease. When I was a teenager, I constantly dealt with joint pain in my right ankle. It was also weak enough to the point where I was told by doctors to wear a brace almost all the time during the day for a few years. No one could ever find anything wrong with it except that it hurt, was pretty weak, and cracked very easily with a lot of pain. My right ankle is much better now, but fast forward a few years later and since 2019 I have experienced similar problems in my right shoulder, almost like it migrated. No explanation, but weak, painful, cracks a lot, and chiropractic and PT work have never helped. I do not know if there is any arthritis present in these joints or if that was ever tested for. Would something like that be worth looking into? Can inflammatory problems settle into certain joints and move?
Hi BrooklyneDeane, I think diet in Lupus and other chronic diseases plays a very important part. As well as the foods you've listed, I find citrus fruit/food eg oranges, lemons really make my muscles and joints painful, so I haven't eaten any of those fruits for many years. As for dairy, refined sugar I try to eat very little of, I don't have an immediate reaction to them, but I do know they are harming me in the long run. As for gluten, I've been diagnosed with coeliac disease, so that's something I have to avoid. Caffeine and alcohol are two other things you should avoid or have very little of. It does an awful lot of will power to eliminate so many foods from your diet, but I just do my best. I hope this helps.
Regards your joint pain, I haven't experienced that, so can't really comment.
foods are triggers for autoimmune. There are inflammatory foods that cause issues. I follow a low histamine diet and I am dairy intolerant which seem to help. There are recipes books for lupus, the SERT diet links to removing inflammatory foods. DeliciousLy Ella had POTS which is how her food recipes came about. It’s worth reading about these but be aware that there are people who promise to cure lupus if you follow their food recommendations.
I have joint pain in my right shoulder and left ankle that just is, I do physio but it doesn’t change much. I have X-rays but there is no arthritis. Just a thing.
Throughout the years, sensitivities to (ie) DAIRY are much worse during a flare with Stomach Issues whereas at other times ICE CREAM (ie) would never be a problem.
It’s like the sensitivity to the SUN EXPOSURE, Lupus gets WORSE the longer we live with Lupus. Sun Exposure starts to do more than just cause RASHES, it begins to affects the internal organs (lungs, heart) , extreme migraines, etc.
YES
DIFFERENT JOINTS are affected at different times. It does migrate around the BODY.
Lupus is at best - IS VERY UNPREDICTABLE and we learn the Signs & SIGNALS to watch out for to help curve the Lupus Symptoms.
Everyone is different & LUPUS “looks for WEAK AREAS to attack” to cause cytokine storms that we must always stay aware of and talk w/Rheumatoid ASAP to get a STEROID PACK (ie) to get it to CALM DOWN if REST doesn’t stop the symptoms from getting WORSE or migrating.
For a while, I've felt mushrooms might flare my Lupus. I spoke with experts about this, but each and every one of them said it's totally unlikely. They said the same about all foods and that flares aren't triggered by foods.
A couple.of weeks ago, my wife was making scrambled tofu for a veggie brekkie, I asked her to put mushrooms in and I'll trial them again as I haven't flared for a very long time and was feeling great. A couple of days later.... Yup! Aching and swollen fingers. Then aching knees. Then thighs. Then right shoulder. Then increase in prednisolone.
Has anyone else found this with mushrooms?
Gutted as I'm supposed to finally be dropping the prednisolone down to 2.5mg in January. Even worse is the fact that other than in scrambled tofu, I'm not a fan of mushrooms at all!
Pre Lupus, and in my late teens, I developed severe eczema, which meant I had to cut out all dairy. But once in my mid twenties, I was able to tolerate dairy again. But I don't find dairy affects my Lupus at all. Although I don't have that much dairy. I continued to drink soya milk in tea and cereal. Cheese is the only thing I really have that is dairy. Yogurt on occasions.
note my diagnosis is Stills Disease which for me manifests as rheumatoid pain in my joints.
I always feel worse after eating flour based foods and some citrus fruits. Tannin found in tea and red wine also have a negative effect so I limit my intake of all foods in this category.
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