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Rheumatoid Arthritis and Osteoarthritis Information
Introduction
There are many conditions in Western industrialised societies today that were unheard of, or at least very rare, just a century ago. The same conditions are still unheard of in primitive peoples who do not have the 'benefits' of our knowledge. There is a very good reason for this: They eat what Nature intended; we don't. The diseases caused by our incorrect and unnatural diets are those featured on these pages.
Dietary causes:
Osteo Arthritis: Carbohydrate based 'healthy' diet.Rheumatoid Arthritis: Carbohydrates; cereals; excess omega-6 vegetable oils.
Arthritis
There can be few if any who have not suffered from pain in their lower backs at some time in their lives. Back troubles are some of the most common complaints seen in a doctor’s office. In each year, about 2% of any general practitioner’s patients consult him with backache.
Beverly had suffered intermittent mild to severe lower back pain for over 10 years. She told me that within a week of starting eating the way I recommend, she found that her pain cleared up completely. She said: ‘It only comes back when I have slipped off the wagon. I put it down to wheat, as my odd foray into chocolate land doesn’t seem to bring it on.’
This case illustrates a simple case of cause and effect as, apart from studies of ancient peoples, clinical trials have also shown that carbohydrates, particularly cereals, in the diet may cause arthritis.1 They may also be responsible for other conditions.
Arthritis, a common plague of modern society, exists in two major forms:
- osteoarthritis, which is caused by wear and tear and, consequently, is generally present only in the middle-aged or elderly; and
- rheumatoid arthritis, which may be present at all ages.
Osteoarthritis has been found in the most ancient skeletal remains of humans and animals. But evidence of rheumatoid arthritis has not been identified earlier than about 2750 BC, a time when consumption of cereal grains had become widespread.
Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis tends to accompany osteoporosis. Researchers at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit tested the hypothesis that women with arthritis had a lower bone density.2 They found a significant decrease in bone density in the legs of female patients with relatively mild osteoarthritis of the knee whether or not they had osteoporosis based on a spine bone density measurement. Osteoarthritis is known to be more prevalent in those who are obese.3 It’s not surprising that joints protest at having to support a heavier body.
Vilhjalmur Stefansson’s experience
The anthropologist, Dr Vilhjalmur Stefansson, didn’t always take his own advice. As an explorer, he had lived on a no-carb diet for many years and believed in it. However, from about 1927 to 1955 he ate a conventional western diet. Over time he put on weight – to a maximum of 184 lbs (83.6 kg). To manage his weight, Stefansson tried cutting down on calorie intake for some years but only lost 5 lbs. He also had noticed that he was developing a stiffness in one knee. This gradually worsened and, by the time he was 75, Stefansson also had increasing soreness in both his hip and shoulder joints. Eventually, in 1955, he decided to revert to the ‘Stone Age’ all-fat-meat diet he had used on his Arctic explorations. It worked. Not only did he lose his excess weight, the diet cured his arthritis. Stefansson’s wife, Evelyn, remarked:4
‘As his knee stiffened, he began to go up and down stairs one step at a time. One day, some months after the start of our meat diet, he found to his surprise that he could use both legs with equal facility in climbing the stairs. Astonished, he proceeded down. When he had reached the foot of the stairs, without pain or stiffness, he shouted for me to come and see.’
Stefansson added:
‘I did indeed shout for Evelyn, because I had just discovered something that I had not forecast to her because I had not foreseen it. The recovery of not only my stiff right knee but of all my joints, blessedly including my typing fingers, had been “magical.” ’
Stefansson lived on his ‘Stone Age diet’ until his death in 1962 at the age of 83, with no further problems with his joints.
Rheumatoid arthritis
Rheumatoid arthritis is never found in animal remains. Neither has it ever been found in skeletal remains of corn-eating peoples, such as Central American Indians. But it has been found to be present equally in all races and cultures eating wheat, rye and oats. This finding suggests that rheumatoid arthritis is a gluten-induced condition similar to coeliac disease.5
Today, arthritis and other rheumatic conditions are among the most prevalent diseases and the most frequent cause of disability.6 An American mortality and morbidity report published in 2001 estimated that some 43 million Americans had rheumatoid arthritis in 1997. This was up from 35 million in 1985 – an increase of nearly a quarter. All age groups were affected, including the working-age population, and preva-lence increased with age. Prevalence was higher in females overall and for each age group. There is no reason to suppose that the situation is any different in Britain and other industrialized countries.
But in a survey of North American Indians in 1932, Dr Weston Price looked specifically for the presence of arthritis in the more isolated groups. He found not one case, neither did he hear of a case. However, he said: ‘at the point of contact with the foods of modern civilization many cases were found including ten bed-ridden cripples in a series of about twenty Indian homes.’7 One five-year-old boy had been in bed in hospitals with rheumatic fever, arthritis and an acute heart involvement for two and a half years. His mother had been told that her boy would not recover, so severe were the complications. She asked for Dr Price’s assistance in planning a nutritional program for her boy. He tells us:
‘The important change that I made in this boy’s dietary program was the removal of the white flour products and in their stead the use of freshly cracked or ground wheat and oats used with whole milk to which was added a small amount of specially high vitamin butter produced by cows pasturing on green wheat. Small doses of a high-vitamin, natural cod liver oil were also added. At this time the boy was so badly crippled with arthritis, in his swollen knees, wrists, and rigid spine, that he was bedfast and cried by the hour. With the improvement in his nutrition which was the only change made in his care, his acute pain rapidly subsided, his appetite greatly improved, he slept soundly and gained rapidly in weight.’8
Rheumatoid arthritis is a complex auto-immune disease involving numerous environmental and genetic components, and similar to a number of other auto-immune diseases is found more often in coeliac patients.9
Many studies of arthritic patients have demonstrated elevated antibody levels for gliadin (a protein found in gluten).10,11 While no large clinical trials have been undertaken specifically to examine the effectiveness of gluten-free diets in the treatment of arthritis, there are numerous case studies reporting alleviation of arthritis symptoms with grain-free diets.12-15
The other half of Dr Price’s protocol – adding fat – is also supported by a recent study which showed that improving the ratio between omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids by eating fish oils and other omega-3 rich oils is of benefit.16 It was not necessary to eat a lot, however. The reported total intake of omega-3 fatty acids in the intervention group was 3.1 grams per day, and of this, 1.2 grams were of EPA and DHA. That is just over half a teaspoonful in total. It is important not to overdo this.
It is also worth noting that cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality are increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and much of the excess cardiovascular disease morbidity appears to be due to atherosclerosis.17 This could be a pointer to a common causative factor between the two diseases, although it could also be that conventional arthritis treatment increases cardiovascular risk.
References
1. Darlington LG, et al. Placebo-controlled, blind study of dietary manipulation therapy in rheumatoid arthritis. Lancet 1986; i: 236-238.
2. Karvonen RL, et al. Periarticular osteoporosis in osteoarthritis of the knee. J Rheumatol 1998; 25: 2187-2194.
3. National Institutes of Health. Clinical guidelines on the identification, evaluation, and treatment of overweight and obesity in adults: the Evidence Report. Bethesda, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, 1998.
4. Stefansson V. Discovery: The autobiography of Vilhjalmur Stefansson. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1964.
5. Medical World News. December 18, 1964.
6. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report: Prevalence of Arthritis – United States, 1997. MMWR 2001; 50: 334-336.
7. Price WA. Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. New York & London: Paul B. Hoeber, Inc, 1939: Chap 6.
8. Ibid: Chap 15.
9. Lepore L, et al. Prevalence of celiac disease in patients with juvenile arthritis. J Pediatr 1996; 129: 311-313.
10. O’Farrelly C, et al. Association between villous atrophy in rheumatoid arthritis and a rheumatoid factor and gliadin-specific IgG. Lancet 1988; ii: 819-822.
11. Lepore L, et al. Anti-alpha-gliadin antibodies are not predictive of celiac disease in juvenile chronic arthritis. Acta Paediatr 1993; 82: 569-573.
12. Shatin R. Preliminary report of the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis with high protein gluten-free diet and supplements. Med J Aust 1964; 2: 169-172.
13. Williams R. Rheumatoid arthritis and food: A case study. BMJ 1981; 283: 563.
14. Beri D, et al. Effect of dietary restrictions on disease activity in rheumatoid arthritis. Ann Rheum Dis 1988; 47: 69-77.
15. Lunardi C, et al. Food allergy and rheumatoid arthritis. Clin Exp Rheumatol 1988; 6: 423-426.
16. Hagfors L, et al. Fat intake and composition of fatty acids in serum phospholipids in a randomized, controlled, Mediterranean dietary intervention study on patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Nutr Metab 2005; 2: 26.
17. Gerli R, Goodson NJ. Cardiovascular involvement in rheumatoid arthritis. Lupus 2005; 14: 679-682.
Last updated 11 May 2011
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