There are a lot of old wives’ tales when it comes to arthritis, mostly involving food. I’ve been told a number of different things about how someone’s grandmother cured her arthritis by giving up this food or that food, or by taking a particular food on a daily basis. I’ve also been told that certain foods are ‘well known’ to trigger flare ups –usually aubergine (my favourite vegetable!), tomatoes and peppers. While I appreciate their intention is to help, quite often they are talking about a relative with osteoarthritis, which is NOT the same as an auto immune arthritis and has different causes and treatments. The interaction with diet is also likely to be different.
Last year, my cousin sourced a research paper conducted in 2000 and published in Clinical and Experimental Rheumatology 18:375-0378 (Palindromic Rheumatism: Effect of Dietary Manipulation). This research was unusual in that it was specifically done on patients with a diagnosis of PR (believe me, there is VERY little research conducted solely on PR patients). The research was only with a small sample (16 patients) and they were monitored to see if there was any link between their flare ups and food. The experiment found that in a small number of patients (only 5), there WAS a link between food and flare ups, though it wasn’t the same food for everyone.
My Palindromic Life 