Last night a friend and I were discussing my diet. Her daughter is vegan so I thought I would ask if anybody here is vegan and has this horrible disease. Maybe a life time of eating bad foods has gone towards creating this disease. I was brought up on the 3 veg and meat diet. Always having bread and fruit and ice cream with it.
Over the years certain foods have been labelled inflammatory and would also be in a vegan diet. Just curious!!
I suspect that if it were that simple you'd see vastly more people with it, particularly in the West. I think our unnatural, stressful lives in this very artificial and increasingly toxic world have a lot to answer for. It’s known that disease is a complicated mix of factors physical and emotional. I also think that there are different makeups in people so you get those who fare well on certain diets and those who deteriorate like me. I tried a good vegetarian diet for 2 years but became too ill. I ate a huge amount of meat in my first year of GCA and have done very well in recovery. Who flippin’ knows!
I know there have been vegans on the forums at various times in the past 10 years - they still developed a/i diseases. People have been gluten-free, non-drinkers, veggie, vegan - still got something or didn't find it made any difference to their illness. It isn't a single factor - it is a culmination of many insults to the immune system and finally a single extra straw breaks the camel's back.
If it were just diet - almost every member of society would have it. Much the same as if the MMR vaccine really DID lead to autism there would be a far higher incidence given the billions who have had it - and there would have been no autism before 1970.
I think that like most things in life if you want to give it a try and it helps then go for it. I am on the Blood Type diet mainly because the last time I tried it I lost weight and I don't want to put on pred pounds. It's probably a load of rubbish but then again maybe not and it isn't doing me any harm. I'm not sure it will help with PMR but if it helps me to stay fit and as active as I can then why not? Give the vegan diet a try for a few months and see for yourself if you feel better. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
I don't know if a vegan diet can help PMR, but I do know that my daughter was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at the age of 14 and was in agonising pain. A year later she became a vegan and her symptoms cleared up almost completely. She's now in her 40s and still vegan.
There was a clinical study some years ago where half a group of RA patients found relief for their joint pain from a very strict vegan diet.The other half didn't. As soon as any animal protein was reintroduced the symptoms returned. For the period of the study the participants had their diet supplied for them - no effort involved. But many lapsed once it was up to them despite the pain relief they had experienced because it was too difficult and costly. It would be much esier now - vegan products are everywhere.
We had Vegan January in U.K., I can’t remember how many hundreds of thousands went for it. However interestingly it did not make a blind bit of difference to the amount of meat sold in January, so perhaps some were cheating. Also some people think eating a vegan diet means they can live on chips and crisps!!
There's a vegan café in Manchester which smells like any greasy spoon café. Everything they serve is a variation on fake burgers or hot dogs. The only vaguely vegetable items they have are chips and some dubious-looking coleslaw. The time I was there (and left without trying anything), all the other customers were young. I had the idea that they wanted to be vegan for idealistic reasons but had no idea about cooking or the possibilities of a vegan diet. I suppose they were looking for something similar to the food they'd been used to.
Love it!! I wonder how many of them take medication, supplements etc tested on animals. Being vegan is a real commitment.
Yes, but once it's your way of life, it doesn't seem like that. My daughter's cooking is delicious and varied and, as PMRPro said, these days there's no need to search far and wide to obtain what you need.
Yes, my older daughter is vegan and does seem to cook properly - she was here for a few days recently and I shared some of her meals. The tofu wasn't too bad drowned in garlic and turmeric/curry powder! I then adapted that for giant prawns I happened to have left from t'other daughter's visit at New Year. It was Older daughter's daughter who became vegan first and at first was good about cooking - but now she has become a junk vegan, according to her mum at least. She bakes well though!!
Yes, my daughter makes lovely cakes and desserts. I've given up added sugar and have to steel myself to refuse them, but sugar is sugar wherever it is. I have real problems with tofu - it gives me the creeps, if that doesn't sound too silly. I tell myself it's no more processed than cheese and incredibly good for me, but I can rarely bring myself to taste it.
I felt that - have had tofu in the Far East once that was absolutely superb, crispy fried in some way - but even Nat said she thought the stuff here in Italy was better than the UK. There is a smoked one that had a different texture which was better. Tofu is OK - as you say, like yoghurt - but what I cannot face is the spreads, imitation butter, which are 100% chemicals if you ask me. Ordinary marg is bad enough!
I'm with you on that.
What I don't understand is how they reconcile the use of highly manufactured stuff as replacements. Yes, leather means an animal has to die - but industry potentially kills the world...
There is a rather beautiful leather substitute, at present only used in high end products, that's made from pineapple waste. To me, this seems a good thing as some rivers in the Philippines and other countries that produce a lot of tinned pineapple have been badly polluted because of the waste that's pumped into them. But if we do eat meat, it makes sense to use the skins as well, rather than to discard them, whether it's leather or rabbit fur.
Some vegans eat highly processed/manufactured junk in just the same way meat-eaters do!
Apparently the junk vegan eaters include beef burgers with vegan blood!
I think the same applies to meat eaters - there's a whole generation of youngsters who don't know how to cook so they live off unhealthy junk food and take-aways.
I'm vegan! I don't have GCA, but was diagnosed with PMR last July. There are good vegan diets and bad vegan diets, just as there are for meat eaters. I love cooking, and cook everything from scratch; we have an allotment so grow a lot of our food organically too. I also work for a wholefood cooperative, so have access to lots of organic wholefoods at a reduced price!
A good healthy diet (vegan or not) doesn't stop you getting GCA/PMR, but perhaps it does help you get over it more quickly? I'm now down to 0.5mg / 0mg pred (alternate days) having started on 15mg in July. Is the speed of reduction due to a healthy diet? a vegan diet? the type of PMR I've got? Who knows?!! There are so many questions surrounding this illness! I just know how fortunate I am that I seem to have got over it so quickly... so far - but who knows what tomorrow or next week will bring!
Thanks for all the interesting replies. So my next question is has it become more common in say the last decade? We all have stress in our lives but not everyone suffers with this disease. Diet may play a small part. Maybe serious diseases we have suffered earlier also play a part. I myself had aspergillus about 10 years ago. Maybe you have a thought of something as to why you got this disease.
It is just my curiosity
I found the following link very down to earth and a lot of common sense so thought it was worth sharing.
polywotsit.com/blog-and-new...
I think it may have become more prominent in the last 10 years - but there are a lot of potential reasons for that. For one thing there has been a lot of publicity and so better awareness. But I think there is probably not that much difference because previous generations simply put it down to getting older and it being their "rheumaticks" for which there was no real remedy. Prior to 1950 or so there was not a lot of point having a diagnosis of PMR or GCA as there was no means of treating them - corticosteroids hadn't been discovered/developed.
There is a genetic susceptibility - it's not a genetic disease but having a Scandinavian ancestry increases the likelihood that the runes will fall into the right pattern and you develop PMR. It is next to unknown in people with an African or Asian ethnicity - something like 5 African Americans or 5 Asians to nearly 400 Caucasians in one study. But there is no single cause - it is is a piling up of factors that upset the immune system and one finishes the job. So it may have been serious illness or infection or a vaccination that toppled the house of cards. But that wasn't the only thing.
I've had PMR for over two years. About a year ago my doctor suggested that I try Dr. Fuhrman's vegan diet. I was anxious to get off prednisone, so I tried the diet. It was very strict; I cooked all my own food and ate tons of vegetables, fruits, nuts, beans, etc. No coffee, alcohol, sugar, oil, or salt. Very limited carbohydrates. Of course no meat or dairy. I stuck with the diet religiously for about 10 months. Did I get over PMR? No, I'm still on 8 or 9 mg of prednisone just like when I started the diet. Did I lose weight? Yes, I lost 25 pounds quickly and easily, and the weight stayed off.
I've slacked off, but I'm still sticking to Dr. Fuhrman's diet about 80%. I'm disappointed that it didn't cure my PMR. My PMR symptoms are not that terrible; my stiffness and pain are pretty mild--but they just won't go away no matter what I eat!
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