Diet May Help Reduce Inflammation in RA

Editor’s note: ACR on Air, the official podcast of the ACR, dives into topics important to the rheumatology community, such as the latest research, solutions for practice management issues, legislative policies, patient care and more. Twice a month, host Jonathan Hausmann, MD, a pediatric and adult rheumatologist in Boston, interviews healthcare professionals and clinicians on the rheumatology front lines. In a series for The Rheumatologist, we provide highlights from these relevant conversations. Listen to the podcast online at acronair.org, or download and subscribe to ACR on Air wherever you get your podcasts. Here we highlight episode 22, “The Impact of Diet on Rheumatic Conditions,” which aired on May 18, 2021.

People with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) often want to know if, or how, the foods they eat affect their disease. Yet many rheumatologists are not entirely sure how to answer this question. There’s not enough evidence and related studies are small, they say; or their own lack of education on diet and nutrition makes them feel uncertain.

During an episode of the ACR on Air podcast, Monica Guma, MD, PhD, a researcher and rheumatologist in the Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, addressed findings related to RA and diet. She also shared her own research in the area of nutrition and diet, including work on the anti-inflammatory diet (ITIS).¹

Dr. Guma discussed her findings with Dr. Hausmann, podcast host and a pediatric and adult rheumatologist in Boston. She pointed out that diet changes for those with RA are complementary to traditional treatments and do not involve changes to standard of care.

Patient Questions

Often, patients ask questions about diet after their initial diagnosis, when they are still coming to terms with having RA. “They always ask about something they can control. If you change your diet, that’s something you can control,” Dr. Guma says.

The challenge: Physicians—traditionally—have not had much training in nutrition, which can make it hard to answer diet-related questions.

An interest in diet and joint inflammation, as well as synovial tissue, has helped spur much of Dr. Guma’s research. She says research finds circulating mediators in the blood, such as cytokines and lipid mediators, increase or decrease inflammation and many are secondary to a patient’s diet.

“It made a lot of sense to try to see if by modifying the diet, you are also modifying these circulating inflammatory mediators,” she says.