Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) is an autoimmune disease. This is a disease whereby the immune system goes awry and starts attacking normal body tissues creating pain and inflammation. Some 580,000 people in England and Wales suffer from RA that causes pain and swelling in the hands, feet and wrists. RA typically affects more women than men occurring between the ages of 40 and 70. Firm lumps located under the skin close to the affected joints called rheumatoid nodules affect 20 to 35% of adults with RA and can be as large as a walnut or as small as a pea.
RA is characterised by a gradual onset of pain, stiffness and swelling primarily in the small joints and is characterised by flare ups and periods of remission. RA is a serious condition to suffer from as it can reduce ones lifespan by 5 to 10 years. This becomes more of a problem if there is a young age at onset and long disease duration.
The exact cause of RA is unknown; however it is believed that sufferers have a genetic predisposition to suffer RA that is set off by an environmental trigger. 70% of Caucasians with RA have a genetic link with HLA-DR4 gene; however it doesn’t mean that just because you have the gene you will get RA as 30% of people with the gene don’t get RA. What seems to happen is that the environmental trigger causes a loss of immunological tolerance and molecular mimicry. This is where the chemicals in environment (be it food, metabolites of bacteria, toxins, etc…) resemble the amino acid structure of the body tissues. This causes immune system to see the genetic structure of your own joint tissue as the same as the environmental trigger and mounts an immune response against it creating pain and inflammation.
Known environmental triggers include:
- Smoking
- Alcohol.
- Periodontitis
- Infectious agents
- Dietary lectins.
It has been shown that there is a link with certain infections agents that can lead to RA such as being exposed to the Herpes virus or Epstein-Barr virus (EBV), more recent research shows a link between proteus infections with RA.
Dietary lectins that can acts as an environmental trigger include diary, grains, legumes and gliadin. In certain people these foods can cause gastrointestinal damage and allow the translocation of antigens to peripheral tissue. This results in molecular mimicry, loss of immune tolerance and development of RA.
Conventional treatment of RA
Doctors will normally prescribe painkillers, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID), steroids and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs). There a number of foods and nutrients that can also help in the management of RA.
Nutritional management of RA
Eating an anti-inflammatory diet is the first line nutritional management strategy. This includes balancing meat and dairy intake with oily fish intake. Eating more vegetables and some fruit and reducing grains and including specific foods in the diet such as ginger, garlic and turmeric. Taking an omega 3 supplement may also be beneficial.
It may be wise to eliminate some dietary lectins from the diet such as gluten found in all wheat based products; the nightshades family of vegetables such as potato, peppers, tomato and aubergine and legumes such as beans, and lentils.
If certain infectious agents are found to a contributing factor in your RA it is wise to work with your doctor and a nutritionist to remove the infection and then improve the balance of good bacteria in your gut to balance your immune system. London nutritionist Steve Hines has extensive knowledge of what herbs and nutrients to use to kill infectious agents and on how to boost your immune system through the use of foods such as yoghurt, kefir, ghee and sauerkraut.
