Diet and arthritis

[Evamollie]

Hi I was diagnosed with PMR in December 2019. I have tried to taper the steroids down but have never got below 2/3 mg a day. Last year I had a particularly trying time with considerable fatigue and very painful mouth ulcers. Slightly at the end of my tether I was given a book called Diet and Arthritis by Dr Gail Darlington and Linda Gamlin. It is quite an old book (published in 1996). It recommends a very particular diet including a week of an exclusion diet and then a strict reintroduction of foodstuffs.

It doesn't work for everyone but I do think it made the difference for me. I found I was intolerant to pork and wheat. I have now successfully tapered off my steroids and I am feeling much better and more like my old self. I am not eating wheat or pork.

You don't have to buy the book, though it is an interesting read. There is a very good article online which outlines the diet and the methodology and weighs up the pros and cons of doing it. This is the link. linkonlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi...

[PMRpro Ambassador]

I'm glad you feel it helped you - however, it is fair to point out that PMR isn't an arthritis! It is a vasculitis, i.e. blood vessels not joints are involved. The joint problems in PMR are because soft tissues around the joints are affected rather than the joints themselves.

I had to give up eating wheat in the earlier stages of PMR although it was in response to developing a VERY itchy rash rather than joint pain. No wheat, no itch, but it was something to do with the structure of wheat starch rather than gluten as I reacted to the UK Juvela products which are gluten-free but contain processed wheat starch. These days I am obviously on enough immunosuppressant medication for it not to bother me!

[Evamollie in reply to PMRpro]

Hi I agree with you about PMR but isn't it an immunosuppressant illness. And I think the diet helps with that. Interestingly its wheat and not gluten that I react to, as I manage all other grains. I'll be interested if anyone else has tried the diet and with what results.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Evamollie]

Not immunosuppressant, that's the medication. PMR is an autoimmune/autoinflammatory disorder which means the immune system is more active or active in a wrong way, attacking the body tissues instead of foreign invaders.

[Miserere]

Thanks for posting - nutrition is a large subject and I am sure this approach may be useful for some people as it is hard to know what we might have an intolerance to. If it doesn't help with PMR it may assist with other things. I'm very glad it helped you.