it only makes my life more pleasant it does not do anything for the RA

if you want to share tips on why eating vegan cheers me up then contact me with a PM

depot

I am not on a vegan diet, but I will tell you where I am on this, in case you are interested.

I. I have never noticed any change in my RA due to diet. I have had remissions of 3 or more years at a time and never once changed a thing about my diet (until recently).

2. I seem to have stopped eating beef and pork all together. I now only rarely eat poultry. For me, it has to do with my love for animals, but for some reason, that is as far as I have progressed.

3. I only buy cage free eggs (for quite some time now), for the same reasons cited above.

4. I actually enjoy the various vegetarian foods such as morning "sausage" and "grilled burgers" and even "BBQ ribs." No meat in any of these and they are quite delicious, without the fat, gristle, and guilt of killing a cow or pig.

5. I am still eating some fish and shellfish.

6. I admire those who can go with fully vegan diets, but I am not there yet. Maybe I will evolve to that point some day. I am surprised that I have completely given up beef and pork. I am 60 now, and I spent most of my life eating those.

I do think there are overall health benefits to avoiding most meats and am reminded that there is a huge impact on the environment to farm those animals.

there are numerous studies that show a correlation between consuming less animal products and overall health. however, none that i have found directly link specific diets to fewer RA related issues. some people have sensitivities to some food regardless of RA. if you think you may be one of those people, get a comprehensive allergy test. it's possible you have 'trigger foods' that may contribute to inflammation and therefore RA symptoms.

all of the elimination diets i've done have shown no difference overall. i have no known allergies (although this year, tree pollen seems to be causing me a problem). i have been taking fish oil capsules daily for about 5 months now and there are studies that link taking regular fish oil with lower RA-related inflammation/pain. additionally, traditional chinese and ayurvedic medicines link herbs like ginger and turmeric to lower inflammation (which, again, would lessen RA pain if your RA involves inflammation).

hi MarieAnn
you are correct ive been a part time vegan for 6 months and im now off all medication and pain free. i recently went on holiday and was eating cooked breakfasts etc and within a few days had really bad flare ups.
google Paddison program for rheumatoid arthritis and buy the book,follow the diet and say goodbye to pain
brett

So many great responses. I appreciate all of the experience hearing from others about the journey. I have had a shellfish allergy for the last 20 years and it is pretty sensitive. I have to be careful of over the counter vitamins as many of them have shellfish products in them.

I also have cold urticaria which is an allergy to the cold. Not sure if this is a cause for my inflammation which has now bloomed into RA. I have asked the doctor but she said there hasn't been enough research about it to answer my question.

I see the doctor tomorrow as the plaquenil isn't working and it has been 7 months. I keep reading about how food makes a difference so my though is that it certainly can't hurt.

Hello and welcome. I'm also on plaquenil and not getting anything from it. Diet and ra can be a touchy subject around here sometimes. Rasally said it well. What works and makes a difference for some can be useless for others. There are a ton of people here that have tried every diet known to man hoping to get some relief. I definitely think it's worth looking into although it could take a lot of trial and error and still might not be worth a dime. I look at it this way. Some have had success which makes it worth a try. It could be beneficial to your overall health if nothing else. I have taken ra meds for the last 10 months with nothing working so why not change my eating habits and try different things. Never know when you might hit the jackpot.

I thought my wife was the only one allergic to the cold. Haha. She has had it since birth. It is very rare from what I hear. She breaks out in welts when she gets cold or has a extreme temp change say like getting into a swimming pool. I think Vistaril is what she takes and it does wonders for it.

Seems like everyone here is getting good treatment for the most part and getting very little results. Very upsetting and tough to read what some folks are going through.

I have tried cutting out certain foods, gluten, etc and have found no change in my RA at all. I felt a bit more energy probably but I'm thinking that was simply because the bad crud wasn't in my body any longer. Back to bad crud for me. Whatever life I do have, I'm going to at least enjoy my food. :)

Diet can definitely have a huge impact on RA symptoms. I'm currently working with a woman who's had RA for about 15 years - she's only 2 weeks into the diet I designed for her and her RA symptoms are already 60% improved (her overall symptoms -- RA and non-RA -- have improved by 63% so far). In my experience, her symptoms should continue to improve dramatically over the next few weeks.

Here's the kicker: diet changes for RA (or any inflammatory condition) need to be completely customized in order to see significant improvements like this. Everyone has different trigger foods; there's no one-size-fits-all diet solution. For this reason, I have my clients complete a blood test that measures their levels of inflammation to various foods and chemicals, then I design an eating plan around each client's test results (also taking into account special dietary measures for autoimmune conditions or other medical conditions). When this is done in a systematic way, wonderful things happen. :)

Since working with this particular client, I've really discovered how much I love helping people with RA (I'm a dietitian with a holistic approach to health and wellness). She just had a baby a couple months ago (had a major flare after delivery), and for the first time, she's able to hold her new daughter with very little pain.

If you're really motivated and willing to put in the work, there's a lot that can be done on the diet end. :)

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Diet has put my mod-severe RA into clinical remission/control since 2012

Let me explain:

From 2002-2012 I suffered daily from moderate RA which went severe when I tried generic minocin. Severe as in every joint but hips doubled in size. I couldn't dress myself or even pull up the covers. So I ended up on prednisone for a couple of years as I got back on name brand - and went down to tolerable moderate RA. But I was never pain free.

In January 2013, I went on the paleo diet to lose the prednisone weight. In three weeks all of my RA and IBS symptoms vanished. When I'd lost the weight and began reintroducing foods - I got very distinctive RA or IBS symptoms based on the food consumed. Later food allergy testing confirmed my observations. I'm allergic/intolerable to 24 foods. With the exception of three - none of them elicit a ''typical' allergic response.

So with my rheumies blessing - I have controlled my inflammation solely by avoiding the positives on that food allergy test.

Typo. I've been in remission/control of RA since Jan2013